


Never Be Without

by canoodler



Series: Never Be Without [1]
Category: Running Man RPF
Genre: DDLG, Daddykink, F/M, Manipulation, Mind Games, Running Man - Freeform, Slow Build, reluctant romance, spartace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 23:03:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 35,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7989415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canoodler/pseuds/canoodler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A one week challenge? Sure. Ji Hyo can spend a week with Jong Kook. She's absolutely certain that by the end, what she already knows will be confirmed: Kim Jong Kook is a sweet, caring, respectful man, and she's absolutely uninterested in him as anything more than a friend. Sounds like a lark.</p><p>Kim Jong Kook knows better. He's had his eye on Song Ji Hyo for years, and it's about time she meet the real him - and the real her, as well.</p><p>Note: This story, while not necessarily incredibly explicit, ventures into daddykink territory. Please proceed at your own risk, and avoid this story if you're under 18, if squicks you out, or if you can't bear to see our beloved Spartace in such a situation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sunday - Fuck, Marry, Kill

“Okay, fuck, marry, kill, Ji Hyo.”

The single members of the Running Man cast are hanging out after a shoot, drinking long after Suk Jin, Jae Suk, and Haha have headed home to their families.

“What?” Song Ji Hyo looks down at her empty glass, wondering how it got empty and how to get it full again.

“Fuck, marry, kill,” Kwang Soo repeats. “Of the three of us.” He gestures to himself, Jong Kook, and Gary. “It’s your turn. Which of us would you fuck, which would you kill, and which would you marry?”

“Ah, come on,” she waves a hand. “That’s a dumb game.”

“Exactly,” Gary chimes in. “It’s just a dumb game. So play a round with us.”

Locating a bottle of soju near her elbow, Ji Hyo tops up her glass. “All right,” she says thoughtfully and the men sit farther forward. “But I don’t want to kill any of you.”

The three men groan. 

“That’s how you play, Ji Hyo!,” Jong Kook complains.

“Well, then, I won’t play,” she says stubbornly, crossing her arms over her chest and turning her nose in the air.

“All right, all right,” Kwang Soo says, “how about fuck, marry, date?”

“I can do that,” Ji Hyo agrees happily, dropping her arms and turning to look over the men speculatively. “This isn’t actually hard at all.”

“First, date. Kim Jong Kook.” 

The man mentioned pumps his fist in the air briefly before a scowl crosses his face.

“Wait, wait,” he says, breaking in, “why wouldn’t you marry me or fuck me?”

“Jong Kook, it’s  my turn ,” Ji Hyo says haughtily. “Second, marry. Kwang Soo.”

Jong Kook and Kwang Soo’s eyebrows shoot up and they turn to look at Gary.

“Last, fuck. Gary! Drink!” She drains her glass and slams it down on the table.

“Let’s hear the explanations,” Jong Kook says, leaning back in his chair and folding his hands on top of his head. He crosses his legs at the ankles and watches Ji Hyo speculatively.

“I didn’t know explanations were part of it,” she argues.

“Humor me,” he says without smiling, eyes fixed on her.

“Ah, okay,” she says, oblivious to his mood. “I’d marry Kwang Soo because he’d do what I say.”

Kwang Soo blushes and nods. “Guilty,” he agrees, and the other two men laugh.

Ji Hyo continues. “And I’d date Jong Kook because he’s the most handsome and considerate, and he’s very busy. He’d probably leave me alone a lot to do my own thing and that works for me.”

“If I’m the most handsome, why wouldn’t you fuck me?” He leans forward in his chair, getting into Ji Hyo’s space, but she’s too drunk to be intimidated.

“Well, between you and Gary - sorry, Kwang Soo, but I don’t want to fuck you - I just think that… I’d rather fuck Gary,” she finishes simply.

“But  why ?,” Jong Kook demands. The other two men shift uncomfortably, seeing that Jong Kook is taking the game a bit too seriously.

“Well, the truth is, Jong Kook, you’re incredibly respectful of women.”

“True,” he agrees, inclining his head.

“And it’s not that Gary’s not,” Ji Hyo says hurriedly. “It’s just that maybe I feel like… your respect of women… extends to the bedroom?” She ends like it’s a question.

“Ah ha haaa,” Gary says, catching on and grinning. “I think I know what you liiiike,” he sing songs, and extends a fist for a bump with Ji Hyo. She grins back at him, a bit abashed, but bumps his fist anyway.

“So that makes you not want to fuck me at all? Because I respect women? That’s kind of messed up, Ji Hyo.”

“No, no, no, that’s not what I mean,” she says, flustered, putting her hands over her face. “Respecting women is a good thing and I really like that about you. It’s just that… “

“You don’t want to have sex with me.”

She shrugs. “It just doesn’t appeal, sorry.”

“I know what ladies like,” Gary brags jokingly, buffing his nails on his shirt. Ji Hyo slaps him jokingly.

“It was just a game, Gary. I’m not actually  going to fuck you. Just you’re the most appealing out of these three particular choices.”

They joke and play flirt back and forth a bit more while Jong Kook watches, his eyes calculating.

Suddenly, Jong Kook says, “I can make you want to fuck me.”

Ji Hyo laughs at his random outburst. “What? I don’t want to fuck any of you.”

“I can make you want to fuck me,” he repeats, dead serious.

Ji Hyo is annoyed now. “Jong Kook, it’s just a game. We’re drinking, having fun. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Do you think I can’t?” His voice is soft but challenging.

“Of course I think you can’t,” she says, rolling her eyes. “I’m not interested. Just like I’m not interested in dating you, or marrying Kwang Soo, or fucking Gary.”

At this, Gary clutches his chest and pretends to wilt off his chair, wounded.

“If you don’t think I can, then it’s no problem if I try, is it?,” he asks in the same soft tone.

Ji Hyo rolls her eyes again and throws her hands in the air. “Whatever. Do what you want.” She’s pouting now, all the fun sucked out of the evening.

Jong Kook stands abruptly. “Good. I’ll take you home. Pack your things tonight.” He grabs her by the arm and gently pulls her out of her chair, steering her toward the door without a word to the two bewildered men in his wake. “You’ll stay with me for five days.”

“What?” Ji Hyo digs her heels in, halting their progress. “I’m not staying with you for five days!”

“That’s all it will take, and I know your schedule is clear for the next five days. I’ll attempt this challenge, and since it won’t work, you can treat it like a nice vacation, okay?,” he says soothingly, leading her right out the door and into his manager’s waiting car. He tucks her into the back before she can protest and leans in to buckle her seatbelt.

Closing the back door, he opens the passenger side door to speak to his manager. “Take her home. Make sure she packs the necessities for a few days before she goes to sleep. Pick her up again at 10am tomorrow and bring her to my house.” 

He slams the door and slaps the roof to signal his manager to head out and turns away to hail a cab, heading to his own place to make preparations for the week ahead.

  
 


	2. Monday - The Rules

At 10am on the dot Monday morning, there's a knock at Jong Kook's door. Pulling it open, he finds an annoyed Ji Hyo standing outside the door with his manager beside her, looking apologetic.

Ji Hyo started her day off under a dark cloud, having woken up to a string of missed calls, text messages, and emails from various people in her company wanting to grab a little of her precious five days in a row off. Can you do this, can you just stop by here, just one photo shoot, and on and on. It's been weeks since she's had the time to sit down and eat a proper meal, let alone get enough sleep, and she's feeling pulled in all directions. To say she was not exactly thrilled when Jong Kook's manager showed up to collect her is an understatement.

"Good morning, Ji Hyo," Jong Kook says pleasantly, stepping aside to let her in. She stalks past him and flops down on his couch, looking around his apartment appraisingly. She crosses her arms and huffs deliberately, just to make sure he knows she's not happy.

"Sorry," his manager says quietly. "I couldn't get her to pack anything. I did manage to convince her to come over, though, so that's something, right?"

"More than I thought would happen, to be honest," Jong Kook agrees. "Please let her manager know she's not available for the next five days, and make sure no one else finds out where she is, okay?"

"Got it." His manager nods and leaves. Jong Kook shuts the door quietly and heads over to his living area to sit down across from Ji Hyo. He barely has his ass in the seat before she starts.

"Jong Kook, this is ridiculous. I'm not staying here for five days just so you can prove you're a man. Plenty of women want to have sex with you. You don't need one more to stroke your ego. I have no time for this, I have so much to do. I can't spend a whole week watching you flex your muscles trying to get me to have sex with you. I'm not going to, so let's just drop this now and forget it ever happened, okay?"

Jong Kook listens to her tirade patiently and gives her a second to gather herself before he responds.

"Okay, I understand you're frustrated with this idea," he starts, "but let's clarify a few things. First, you don't have a lot to do. I know you have these five days off."

"Right," Ji Hyo agrees, "but look." She waves her phone at him. "Look at all these messages. My manager wants me to go to some meetings and he's got scripts for me to read and there's a couple of charity events that would like me to make an appearance and --"

"Are you hungry, Ji Hyo?," he breaks in. "When was the last time you got a solid night of sleep? What's the last thing you ate?"

"I -- what?" She's flustered at the sudden questions. "Well, I ate at dinner last night with the cast. And I don't know about sleep, I kind of just catch it where I can, you know that."

"I told my manager to make sure your manager knows you're not available for the next five days. And also not to let anyone know how to find you. If you hand me your phone right now, you can spend the next five days not worrying about any of that. You can eat and sleep as much as you want." He smiles at her calmly and holds out his hand. She makes no move to hand him her phone and he shrugs, still smiling, and pulls his hand back.

"Second," he continues, "I'm not going to try to get you to have sex with me. I said I could make you  _want_  to have sex with me."

"What's the difference?," Ji Hyo laughs.

"It's subtle, but it's there." He grins at her.

She rolls her eyes, but her bad mood is dissapating.

"Be honest," he says. "A week off, where no one can find you or bother you - at least that sounds appealing, right?"

"I have to admit, it kind of does," she agrees. "But what would we even  _do_  for a week?" She eyes him suspiciously and he laughs.

"You let me worry about that."

"And what about all the phone calls, and the scripts, and all of that?," she follows up.

"I'll handle it," he says simply.

"You'll handle it?" She raises an eyebrow at him.

"Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do."

"Then just let me have your phone. You can have it back at any time during the week that you want it. But while I have it, I'll handle anything that comes in that needs handling. I'll read the scripts. I'll take care of everything for you."

Something small inside Ji Hyo weakens. The idea of having all the daily stresses taken off her plate, dealt with by someone else she knows well enough to know wouldn't hurt her, is more than a little tempting. And all the sleep. The  _sleep_.

Jong Kook can see her wavering and waits a beat, then two, watching her, before holding out his hand again. Almost without realizing what she's doing, Ji Hyo places her phone in his hand.

"Good," he says, smiling at her and silding the phone into his pocket. She blushes a bit, feeling slightly unsettled. She looks around quickly to give herself a moment to gather her thoughts.

"So...," she says. "How does this work?"

"How does what work?"

"What, I just sit here and you try to be charming until I want to have sex with you?"

He laughs. "Nope. Are you staying?"

She nods. "I'll stay for tonight, at least. You did say I could sleep as much as I want, right?"

"Right," he agrees with a grin.

"So I assume there's some bargain that comes along with that?"

He stands. "Let's go on a date."

"What?"

"You said you'd date me, so that's what we'll do today."

"Jong Kook, that was a  _game_. I wouldn't date you in real life."

"Humor me," he says kindly. "Remember all that sleep you're going to get."

She smiles at him and he doesn't know if it's for him or for the sleep. "All right, deal. Let's do things your way."

"That's what I like to hear," he says, leading her to the door with his hand in the small of her back.

* * *

A short time later, they're sitting across from each other in a small, out of the way restaurant. Jong Kook is sitting back in his seat, watching amused as Ji Hyo puts away massive amounts of food.

"I know you can't stay that small by eating like this regularly, Ji Hyo, so it's pretty clear that you haven't eaten well in a while."

There's a slight chiding tone to his voice and she is momentarily abashed. Before she can respond, he speaks again.

"Take your time and eat as much as you want. We have all day. But while you eat, let's go over the rules."

Ji Hyo lifts her head, a noodle dangling from her mouth. "Rules?," she mumbles around a mouthful of food. He shakes his head at her, still smiling like always, and uses a napkin to wipe her chin. She blushes as he does so.

"Right," he says. "Rules. You keep eating. Just listen, and when I'm done, you can talk, ok?"

She nods, annoyed, but too focused on actually getting to sit and eat for as long as she needs to kick up too much of a fuss.

"Rule one," he begins. "Do what I say."

Her eyes flash at him and she's clearly ready to protest before he even gets going. He holds up a hand to stop her, shaking his head.

"I'm not going to tell you to do what I say and then command you to have sex with me, Ji Hyo."

She scowls.

"That's not what I'm trying to do."

"What  _are_  you trying to do?," she asks, ignoring his 'wait til I'm done' order.

"I'm trying to show you something. Please listen until I'm done, okay, and then I'll listen to everything you have to say." He waits for her nod to continue. "Again, rule one. Do what I say. Like I said, I'm not telling you to blindly obey me and do things you don't want to do. I don't want you to do  _anything_  you don't want to do, okay?" He lays his hand on hers comfortingly. "All I ask is that you try to follow this rule, within reason. By reason, I mean, as long as what I say seems  _reasonable_ , then please do it. If you feel that what I'm asking is  _unreasonable_ , take a moment to think about it thoroughly and decide if it's really too crazy. If you still feel I'm being unreasonable, talk to me about it. That's all. Does that sound...  _reasonable_?" He grins.

She inclines her head, mouth still full of food. She has to admit, that does sound pretty reasonable. After all, he's giving her this vacation of sorts, a break from the responsibilities of her life, and so far, he's not asking for much in return. Finally, she nods.

"Okay." He smiles. "Rule two. Do not think too hard or question anything that you think or feel. If something feels right, do it. If something feels wrong, don't do it. Right or wrong. That's all it comes down to. Don't overthink anything. Don't avoid something because you worry about what people would think, or because you feel it's inappropriate since we're friends. Whatever you think and feel during the week is  _fine_ , just as it is. Don't get too caught up in your own head."

Ji Hyo feels a vague sense of forboding at what he has planned for the week, but, recalling back to his first rule, takes a minute to think through what he's saying. He watches the wheels turn in her head. On the surface, what he's saying isn't  _unreasonable_. It's hard to object to thoughts or feelings she hasn't had yet. She nods again, shortly.

"Last rule," he says. "Do not leave the apartment without me."

Here, he knows she wants to object, but he raises a finger, urging her to wait a second and think it through. Again, he's not making an  _unreasonable_  demand. 

He smiles at her, practically reading the thoughts as they cross her face. "It's not an unreasonable request. Obviously, this whole thing stemmed from a challenge of sorts, and you've got to give me my fair shot at it in exchange for your little vacation, right?" He laughs lightly and she does, too.

"There's not really anywhere I want to go, anyway," she admits. "Is it my turn to talk now?"

He nods, gesturing with his hand for her to go ahead.

"This is nice," she says, gesturing at him and all the food, and he's not sure which she's appreciating more. "But Jong Kook, I don't really get what you're doing here. I am not trying to be rude when I say I don't want to have sex with you. It was just a game. Of the three options presented to me, I chose what I chose. It doesn't mean I actually  _want_  to do any of that. I really don't see what you're trying to win or accomplish here."

"You have nothing to say about the rules?," he asks, slightly surprised.

"Well, no," she admits. "They seem fair enough for one night. It's not a lot to ask, even if it is a bit weird."

He nods. "Okay. Well, as to what you were saying. What I'm trying to do here. I'm... trying to show you something."

"Show me something? I don't understand."

"I think you will, eventually, and if you don't, no harm, no foul, right? You get a nice break out of the deal, and we go back to the way things were."

"Are things going to change over these five days?" She sounds wary.

He shrugs. "That's up to you, I guess. I can only show you what I want to show you."

" _What_  do you want to show me?," she asks, exasperated.

"Let me have some surprises, Ji Hyo. We have a whole five days together."

"One," she grumbles. "I said I'd stay tonight."

"Speaking of that," he says, standing, "are you done? We have some errands to run." He takes her by the hand and helps her out of her seat. Stopping at the checkout to pay, he leads her out the door and onto the street. He scans up and down a bit before spotting what he's looking for. With a hand in the small of her back, he leads her a few doors down to a drugstore.

"We're going to need a few things," he says, opening the door to let her inside first. He steers her up and down the aisles, collecting a toothbrush, a hair brush, and some face wash with her guidance.

"Do you need some of those things ladies put in their hair?," he asks, looking over a wide array of hair accessories on display.

"Hair ties?," Ji Hyo laughs. "I have one right here." She holds up her wrist.

"You might lose it," he says decidely, and examines her wrist, matching it up to a pack on the display. He grabs three. 

"Jong Kook, " Ji Hyo laughs again. "That's enough hair ties for a year."

"You might lose a lot of them," he says, tossing them into the basket. "What about shampoo?"

"I'm only staying one night!"

"You might get dirty," he says, waggling his eyebrows at her suggestively, and she slaps his arm with a grin. Being on a date with Jong Kook is fun. He's fun, and relaxed. Respectful of women, like she already knew. It's easy being around him, and comfortable. Still no desire to go to bed with him, but at least she doesn't feel like she's wasting her time. Let him play out his silly mission, she figures. It's not like she's miserable in the meantime.

He's standing in front of the shelves upon shelves of shampoo and conditioner.

"This is my brand," Ji Hyo says helpfully, pointing.

"No, we need this kind," he says, grabbing a magenta bottle off the shelf.

"Jong Kook, that's for children."

"It says here 'no tears.' No tears is for everyone, Ji Hyo."

"But I'm an adult and I don't get shampoo in my eyes, so it's not really a concern."

"What if I need to wash your hair and I get shampoo in your eyes and there are tears? I'd never forgive myself."

"Why in the hell would you need to wash my hair?," she asks, suspicions stirring again.

He smiles at her. "What if I just want to? Would that be unreasonable?"

She hesitates just a split second before answering, and he takes the opportunity to toss the shampoo into the basket and march on down the aisle. 

"Keep up, please, Ji Hyo!," he calls over his shoulder and she scurries after him, totally bewildered and not a small amount of intrigued.

By the time she catches up, he's checking out, and she stands to the side while he pays for everything. Before she knows it, they're back on the sidewalk.

"Now what?," she asks.

"Ice cream?," he asks back, smiling down at her. She reflexively grins back in response, and off they go to locate ice cream.

Again, Jong Kook sits across from her, leaned back with his legs crossed, watching her eat happily. 

"I'm having a good day," she says spontaneously.

"Me, too," he agrees. "Why do you think that is?"

She takes a moment to think. "For one, I got to eat." He laughs. "For two, I'm eating again." He laughs harder. "For three..." She thinks, trying to place the feeling, or more, the absence of feeling, that is making the day so pleasant. He watches her, then subtly taps his pocket.

"Ah," she exclaims. "For three, I'm not checking my phone every five seconds." She's amazed that she's already forgotten about her phone, about the responsibilities it holds, and about her abdication of those responsibilities. 

Jong Kook nods. "Good," he says cryptically. "Let's walk."

Ji Hyo stands obligingly, still licking at her ice cream cone as they make their way to the corner. Jong Kook extends a hand in front of her as he looks both ways for traffic, as if worried she'll recklessly dart into the street at any moment. When he's satisfied it's safe to cross, he places his hand in the small of her back again and leads her to the opposite corner, into a large, bright store. 

Seeing her puzzled expression, he says, "It's a date, right? I've got to buy you a present."

She opens her mouth to protest but he shakes his head. The words die on her lips and he smiles approvingly, leading her deeper into the toy store. They approach an aisle that seems miles long, with row upon row of stuffed animals.

"Since you're away from home," he says thoughtfully, looking at the selection, "you'll need something to keep you company at night. What do you think? A bunny?" He picks a particularly fluffy and floppy gray rabbit off the shelf and makes it hop toward her. "Or what about a giraffe - no, not a giraffe," he quickly discards that idea. "No monkies or penguins or grasshoppers, either."

Ji Hyo laughs. "You think there are a lot of grasshopper stuffed animals, Jong Kook?"

"I don't know and I don't care," he replies. He finally finds what he's looking for and has to stretch to reach it. He presents her with a giant, soft, and cuddle stuffed tiger, as big as her entire torso. She rolls her eyes.

"Come on," he grins. "Like I was going to pick anything else."

She does have to admit the tiger is quite soft and as he turns to head for the counter, she rubs its fur against her cheek as she follows behind him.

"Thank you," she remembers to say as they exit the store.

"You're very welcome," he says simply, and leads her down the street yet again.

* * *

Several hours later, after a long stroll and a light dinner, they're back in Jong Kook's apartment. 

"It's time for bed," he announces.

"Jong Kook," she protests. "It's only 7pm!"

"And you need your rest," he says, steering her down the hall to the bathroom. He opens the door and flips on the light, sending her inside. He places the bag of toiletries from the earlier stop on the counter. "You can put that away wherever you want after you use it. I'll go get you one of my t-shirts to sleep in."

"But Jong Kook --," she starts again.

"It's bed time, Ji Hyo," he says firmly, not smiling, and turns down the hall.

She shuts the door slowly after he leaves. The "date" has been nice, but now she's nervous. Bed time. He said he wasn't going to force her to sleep with him, but still she's anxious about what kind of plans he may have. And while he hasn't detailed them as yet, he does clearly have plans. She swallows hard and starts rummaging in the bag to distract herself. Brushing her teeth, she tries to calm herself. She knows who he is, how he is. She knows he won't do anything she isn't comfortable with. And while she stands by what she said the night before, that he's the most handsome - one of the most handsome men she's ever met and she's always thought so - she still has no desire to sleep with him. She'd never say it aloud to him, but it just seems like such a  _boring_  prospect. It's not that she's super kinky or into anything crazy, but... the idea never has and still doesn't appeal to her at all. 

There's a soft knock at the door and after a moment, it opens. Jong Kook sticks just his hand in, a gray t-shirt dangling from it. As she takes it, he says, "Just leave your clothes in there, I'll take care of them. Come out when you're done and bring the hairbrush."

Confused, she takes the shirt and the door shuts again. Once changed, she tiptoes back out into the hall on bare feet, the brush clutched in her hand. She has a brief moment of panic that he'll take it and spank her with it to show that he's not so boring after all, and almost breaks into hysterical laughter at the idea - half in fear, half at the ridiculous mental picture of gentle Jong Kook ever raising his hand to a woman in any way.

The man on her mind appears at the end of the hall. "Come on," he says, smiling. "I'll show you where you'll be sleeping."

"Oh?," she says, surprised, as he leads her to a door to his left.

"You didn't think I'd make you get in bed with me, did you?," he chides jokingly and she blushes, because that's exactly what she'd thought.

He pushes open the door to the room and lets her step in before him. Immediately, her feet sink into a thick, soft carpet. He turns on the light and she gasps as she looks around. The carpet is fluffy and white. The walls are painted the palest pink, nearly white themselves. A large closet takes up one entire wall, the shelves and racks empty, but with plenty of space for shoes and clothes. Between the windows on the opposite wall sits a lady's vanity, white with silver knobs on the drawers. A small bench sits in front of it, cushioned in the exact same color as the walls. But the centerpiece of the room is the enormous four poster bed, its intricately carved white posts reaching nearly to the ceiling. Ji Hyo gasps, never having seen such a large bed in her entire life. Not only is it long and wide, with plush gray fabric hanging down around the headboard, but it's also high. Incredibly high. Impossibly high, really. She briefly wonders where he even found the soft gray quilt that hangs down to the floor on each side - the bed is so unbelievably large that she assumes they must be specially made. 

Before she can ask any questions, Jong Kook leads her over to the vanity and pulls out the stool, gently directing her to sit with firm pressure on her shoulders. He takes the brush from her stunned hands and turns her to face the mirror, standing behind her. Slowly, he begins to pull the brush through her hair, murmuring an apology whenever he hits a small snag. Ji Hyo lets her eyes drift shut, then they immediately snap back open. What is she doing? What is  _he_  doing? She catches his eyes in the mirror over her head, and opens her mouth to speak.

He tips his head questioningly at her, then says quietly, "Rule two."

She thinks back to what he said earlier. Rule two.  _" Do not think too hard or question anything that you think or feel." _This feels nice. Of course having her hair brushed feels nice. She's practically melting into his gentle touch, despite a little panicked voice in her head demanding to know what exactly it is she thinks she's doing right then. Yes, she's having her hair brushed, but  _Jong Kook_  is the one brushing her hair. It's not right. It's just not right. 

He raises an eyebrow at her in the mirror, waiting, continuing to brush her hair as he does.

' _Do not overthink,'_  she reminds herself. Yes, Jong Kook is brushing her hair. And yes, if anyone else saw them, there would be a lot of questions to answer. But... no one else is here. No one is going to ask any questions. So the only problem is how  _she_  feels about it. Deep inside, she knows it's wrong. She doesn't know  _why_  it's wrong, though. What's so terrible about Jong Kook brushing her hair? Nothing, really. Sure, it's a bit intimate, and yeah, she usually brushes her  _own_  hair, but if she follows his directives and doesn't question herself, and doesn't think too hard about how she's feeling, she has to admit that she just feels  _nice_  right now. A weak word for such a comfortable feeling, but on the surface, ignoring everything going on beneath, that's what it is. It's  _nice_. She sighs and closes her eyes. Over her head, Jong Kook smiles down at her.

"Good," he says again, and she feels a small, glowing warmth deep in her belly that fades as quickly as it came. She firmly instructs herself not to think about it, not to question it.

After a few more minutes, Jong Kook declares himself done.

"All right," he says, setting the brush down on the vanity. "Into bed."

She stands obligingly, surprised at how sleepy she suddenly is. Sure, she's always sleepy, but she usually powers through quite a lot more in a day than they'd accomplished. 

She shuffles over to the bed and quickly realizes a problem.

"Um, Jong Kook?," she asks.

"Yes?"

"Do you have, um... a stool or something?"

He laughs and comes up behind her, grabbing her around and waist and lifting her easily, dropping her into the center of the bed. She lands with a soft exhalation of breath.

"You know," she says, scooting to the center of the bed as he pulls down the covers. "This bed is kind of ridiculous."

"A bit," he agrees, gesturing for her to slide under the covers. He pulls them back up to her chin and moves some of the mountains of pink and gray throw pillows away from her face. "But comfortable, right?," he asks.

"Right," Ji Hyo agrees, eyes already drooping.

"Just one thing, I'll be right back." He dashes from the room and when he returns, Ji Hyo has already drifted into a light sleep. Smoothing the hair back from her face with one hand, he pulls back the covers with the other, and tucks her big, fluffy tiger in next to her before turning to leave.

He stops at the door for a long moment to look at her, a slow smile of satisfaction spreading across his face. He turns out the light and shuts the door softly, leaving her to rest.


	3. Tuesday Morning - Am I Being Unreasonable?

Ji Hyo awakes Tuesday morning feeling like she's slept for a week. She yawns, stretches, and reaches to her bedside table for her phone. After some groping and feeling only more bed, she opens her eyes and looks around. It takes a moment, but she finally remembers she'd slept at Jong Kook's house the night before. Sitting up, she looks around. Light is streaming in through gauzy white curtains. Without her phone, she has no idea what time it is, but it must be late morning.

She's struck once again by the absolute enormity of the bed. She feels like a tiny island in an ocean of quilt and pillows. Scooting to the edge, she dangles her feet over and moves to jump off before reconsidering her actions. She slides down to the end of the bed, gripping the post and extending her leg as far as possible, pointing her toe. Still, she's nowhere close to the floor. She frowns. Finally, abandoning dignity, she flips on to her stomach and slides off the edge of the bed, giving a startled yelp as she tumbles to the floor in a heap.

She jerks her head up at a soft chuckle and sees Jong Kook leaning against the door frame, grinning at her. 

"You just have to call for me and I'll help you down, Ji Hyo." He crosses over to her and extends a hand. 

She takes it, examining her other elbow which is red with carpet burn. "Who has such a ridiculous bed, anyway?," she grumbles.

Jong Kook releases her hand and gently takes the affected elbow. "Ahh," he says regretfully. "You're scraped." He examines it closely. "We'll need to put some cream on this."

"It's nothing," Ji Hyo insists, still burning at the indignity of her exit from the bed. 

"Oh, my, your knee, too," Jong Kook clucks. "Come with me." He takes her hand and leads her to a door on the opposite side of the room. It opens into a gleaming white bathroom with the biggest bathtub Ji Hyo has ever seen, flanked on each side by a glass-walled shower with dual heads and a small personal sauna. She's taking it all in as he leads her to a small bench in front of the mirror and guides her to sit down.

"Really, it's nothing," she says as he rummages through the medicine cabinet and emerges with a small tube of antibiotic ointment.

"I'll take care of this, Ji Hyo," he replies, taking her elbow again.

"I can do it," she says, pulling her arm away.

"Ji Hyo, I said I'll take care of this."

Something in his tone - not mean or even overly harsh - stops her protests. He smiles slightly and it's gone before she fully catches it.

"Good," he murmurs. She feels that fleeting flash of warmth in her belly again and her cheeks heat as she pushes the feeling down. The corners of Jong Kook's mouth twitch as he kneels down in front of her, but he says nothing. He's fully absorbed in the work of carefully dabbing the ointment on Ji Hyo's wounds, making soothing noises when she winces, sealing both knee and elbow with a bandaid when he's finished.

"All done," he says, standing and smiling down at her. "Let's go." He takes her by the hand again and leads her back through the bedroom and down the hall, into the living room. Piles of papers are spread all over the coffee table, and he directs her to one side of it. "Sit," he says. 

She moves to sit on the couch.

"No, here." He directs her back to the edge of the coffee table and presses her shoulders down gently, until she's sitting cross legged on the floor in front of it. "Sit on the floor while you're here, Ji Hyo, unless I ask you otherwise, okay?"

"Excuse me?"

"Rule one," he reminds her.

"Yes," she says, annoyed and rolling her eyes. "Do what you say. Unless it's  _unreasonable_."

"Oh?," he lifts his eyebrows and feigns confusion. "Am I being unreasonable right now?"

"Yes!"

"What makes you say that?"

"Because why would I sit on the floor when there's a perfectly good couch right there?"

"Because I told you to."

"That's not a reason, Jong Kook."

"Oh, but it is." He's still half-smiling, not losing patience at all. "But instead of trying to understand it, can you tell me why sitting on the floor is such a hardship for you? Is it too hard? I did put a cushion there for you."

"No, it's not too hard... "

"Then is the table too high to be comfortable?"

"No, the table is fine, but -- "

"Then what's wrong with the floor?"

"It's just... it's weird!," she insists.

"Weird, huh?" He smiles at her. "Then can you chalk it up to a guy just being a little weird?"

"You're definitely being weird."

"So if we accept that I'm weird, the request isn't at all unreasonable, is it?"

Ji Hyo scowls but doesn't move. "What's all this?," she asks, changing the subject and gesturing to the papers covering the table.

"I sent my manager to your place. Sorry, I took the keys out of your purse. He got some clothes for you, as well as all these scripts and proposals your manager dropped off for you. I thought you'd like to look through them."

"I -- oh." Ji Hyo blushes, looking down and realizing she's still dressed in Jong Kook's soft gray t-shirt. "Um, thank you. I do need some clothes. Where are they?"

"I'll get them for you in a bit. You're fine that way for now. It's cute." He grins at her and she blushes more. "Why don't you look over all that while I make us some breakfast?"

"Ah... yes." She agrees hesitantly, feeling unsettled in a way she can't really name. "Can I have my phone, please?"

"Of course," Jong Kook says instantly, sliding it out of his pocket and setting it on the table beside her. "I'll be in the kitchen. I'll call you when breakfast is ready, so just take your time."

She nods and turns her attention to her phone, lighting up the screen. She winces at the flood of notifications and starts doggedly scanning through each one. The requests are endless. The demands on her time are bordering on ridiculous. She feels her chest tightening more and more with each message, each schedule change, each question requiring her response. She has to set aside messages from friends to answer later, sometime, whenever she finds a spare moment, in order to focus on the most demanding of the lot. Her manager's messages asking where she is and when he can pick her up for this or that, since she has the time off, get more and more insistent as she pages through them. 

Frozen with the weight of responsibilities, she finally forces herself to shove her phone aside and starts paging through all the papers spread out in front of her. She uncrosses her legs and sticks them straight out under the table, leaning her elbows on the surface and frowning down at them in concentration. She reads the notes from her manager on each script. 

 _"Great cast. Tough filming schedule, but you can do it!"_  
"This is a small role, but demanding. It would be a good challenge for you."  
"Leading role, but I don't think this drama would draw a wide audience."  
"I thought you'd like to see this one. It's ridiculous."  
"Check out these endorsement options. Please pick six or seven."

"Six or seven!," she exclaims aloud. "Ah!" She drops her head to the table in frustration. Jong Kook's hand slides in to cushion her forehead right before it thunks on the wood. He lifts her head back up and squats down next to her.

"What's up?," he asks, concerned.

"Agghhh," Ji Hyo grumbles, gesturing helplessly at all the papers. Jong Kook looks them over appraisingly.

"It's a lot, isn't it," he asks sympathetically.

"It is," she agrees, nodding with a small pout. He grins at her.

"Well. Let's go eat and we'll deal with this after."

"But --"

"Ji Hyo, it's time to eat," he says in the same tone he'd used the night before when directing her to bed. She stands wordlessly and follows him into the kitchen.

"Good," he says quietly, not turning around. Ji Hyo clutches her stomach at the word.

"Have a seat," he says, pulling out a chair for you. "This is your chair. This is the one you sit in to eat."

"Oh, not the floor?," she snarks.

He tilts his head at her. "When you eat, you'll sit in this chair, okay?"

She rolls her eyes but makes her way to the chair. Sitting down, she's startled to find the table only comes to her collarbones.

"Jong Kook," she complains. "Why is all the furniture in your house so strange?"

"What do you mean?"

"This table is too big!"

He laughs. "Have you considered that maybe you're just very small, Ji Hyo?" He ruffles her hair. "Hang on a moment." He steps into a small side pantry and emerges with a strange wooden block, cushioned on top. "Stand up, please." She does and he places the block on the chair. "Here you go." Before she can blink, he takes her by the waist and sets her down on top of the cushion then moves to his own place opposite her.

"Jong Kook, is this... a  _booster seat_?," she asks, shocked.

"Of course not," he says calmly, dishing some soup into two bowls. "If it was a booster seat, it would have a safety belt. If you'd like, I can add one."

Ji Hyo sputters as he sets the soup in front of her, carefully making sure it's not too hot before he places it within her reach.

"Would you like some vegetables?," he asks in the same calm tone.

She glares at him and stabs her spoon into the soup, spilling some down the front of her borrowed shirt as she stuffs it into her mouth.

He laughs lightly. "It's not a big deal, Ji Hyo. You couldn't reach the table, and now you can. That's not unreasonable, is it?"

"Well, I can't help but notice  _you_  don't need a booster seat." She spits the words out.

"I'm bigger than you are, Ji Hyo. I'm big, and you're small. You need some help, and I don't. Ok?"

"I..." She turns her attention to the soup, briefly confused, unfamiliar thoughts and feelings swirling through her mind. He  _is_  bigger than her, she admits to herself. She  _is_  small and she  _did_  need help. The logical part of her mind is clamoring for her to realize how absolutely nonsensical this is, but another part, a part that seems to be growing, exudes a calming aura over the clanging bells. It's not a big deal, the new, growing part tells her. He just helped her out a little, that's all. And now she can reach the table and eat her soup. She smiles down at the food happily, digging in much more carefully now.

She's unaware of Jong Kook watching this play of emotions across her face, a small, satisfied grin turning the corners of his own mouth. He schools his face before she looks up again, and gestures to her to continue eating. She smiles brightly at him and does so, almost unconsciously stuffing down that logical part of her mind that's trying to ruin her current moment of calm in an otherwise overly hectic life.


	4. Tuesday Afternoon - Settling In

"So, Ji Hyo," Jong Kook starts, setting down his spoon and watching her across the table. "If you could do anything you wanted today, what would you do?"

She sighs, stirring her soup around. "It's not even worth thinking about. You saw the pile of things I have to do today."

"Ah ah," he says, picking up the platter of sauteed vegetables and spooning some onto a plate before passing them to her. "Eat all of those, please. But back to my question - if you could do anything you wanted today, anything at all, what would it be?"

"Jong Kook," she starts to protest.

"Vegetables," he instructs, pointing at her plate with his spoon. "Please answer the question."

She sighs again. "I guess, if I didn't have an enormous pile of proposals to sort through and messages to answer and calls to make, I'd like to... read a book." She looks a bit wistful. "I haven't read a book for pleasure in forever." She shoves a bit of squash in her mouth and makes a face. She pushes the plate of vegetables away.

Jong Kook pushes it right back. "Finish those, please," he says again. "So why don't you read a book today?"

"I have no  _time_!," she insists, unconsciously sticking another bite in her mouth and pouting at the taste. She looks around for a napkin.

"Swallow it," he says in the same neutral tone, and with a grimace, she does. "You do have the time. I told you yesterday, you can let me handle these things for you while you're here."

"I'm leaving today, though," she says, picking up another chunk of squash. She looks at it with a scowl.

"Ji Hyo, I don't want to tell you again to finish the vegetables."

She flushes and quickly picks up the pieces of food, one after the other, chewing and swallowing as quickly as she can to avoid the taste.

As she eats, Jong Kook says, "Why don't you just stay the rest of the day today, and then decide? If you'd like to leave at the end of the day, you can go ahead. If you decide to stay, you'll stay the full five days. Okay?"

She shrugs, eyeing the last piece of squash, unsure if she can stomach any more.

Jong Kook stands. "You think about it. I'm going to go do something really quickly, and then I'll come back to get you. Stay there until I come back." He leaves the room.

Ji Hyo looks around the kitchen, wondering why her head feels so much more clear once he's not nearby. She glares at the piece of squash and throws it back down to her plate. She kicks her feet in frustration. Just  _what_  is going on? Of course, she agreed to do anything he said as long as it sounds  _reasonable_  - that stupid word,  _reasonable_  - but the trouble is, when he's saying it,  _everything_  sounds reasonable! She's sitting on a  _booster seat_ , for god's sake, with her feet dangling a full foot above the floor. She ate  _squash_. She's actually even considering taking him up on his offer to just... take everything off her plate for the day. Of course she can't let him do that. She's an adult with responsibilities, and she needs to take care of them. Why is she even considering this ridiculous game in the first place? She  _still_  doesn't want to have sex with him, or think she ever will. Though she has to admit, she was right about him being the one she'd date. The date was nice.

She's smiling to herself, thinking about that, when she hears his footsteps approaching the kitchen again. Before she even knows what she's doing, she snatches up the last piece of squash with her bare hand and stuffs it in her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut and screwing up her face as she chews and swallows as fast as she can. She's so intent on getting it down, she doesn't even realize he's standing next to her until his hands are on his waist. He lifts her down from the chair and sets her on her feet.

Leaning over her so her face is nearly pressed into his chest, he looks over her plate. 

"Good," he says softly, and rustles her hair. This time, that growing little piece of her mind doesn't let her force down the warmth spreading across her belly, but instead, lets it expand and soothe her until it naturally fades away on its own. Jong Kook just stands with her quietly, and after a moment she jerks herself out of her little reverie.

Without mentioning her strange pause, Jong Kook takes her hand and leads her back into the living room. All of the papers have been neatly stacked in piles according to type on the coffee table, and her phone rests beside them.

"I'm going to show you two things," Jong Kook says. "The first is this." He gestures to the coffee table. "You can sit here --"

"On the couch?," Ji Hyo breaks in, confused.

"Yes, on the couch," he continues. "You can sit here and work through these papers and messages until they're done. Or." He takes her hand and leads her around to the back of the couch. She gasps.

A dark blue, soft blanket has been stretched from the back of the couch three feet over to the window, where it's clipped to the curtains, forming a roof of sorts. Ji Hyo bends down to look underneath. A soft, thick white carpet, much like the one in her room, is spread out below. Piles of pink and gray throw pillows fill up the space, except for one corner, which has the tiniest little table she's ever seen. On the table is a small pink lamp, emitting a soft glow. There's a similar table in the opposite corner, this one stacked with several books.

"Or," Jong Kook continues, smiling at her back as she takes in this impromptu fort. "You can give your phone back to me, crawl on in here, and I'll come and get you when I've finished with your papers and messages. And before you answer," he says quickly as her mouth opens, "I want you to remember rule two."

Yes. Rule two. Don't question anything she's thinking and feeling, no matter what. Before she can stop herself, she drops to her knees and crawls inside. This is definitely where she'd rather be. The ever-shrinking logical part of her mind shrieks at her, insisting she's being insane, that she can't spend an entire day in a kiddie fort curled up with books. She has things to do, people to call, a life to live and handle like an adult. But! The new part of her brain chimes in,  _rule two_. We're not thinking, we're just going with it, and we're going in the fort. Ji Hyo nods to herself firmly, telling that logical piece to just take a couple more hours off. Just a couple more hours and she'll go back to real life.

She settles herself into the pillows and pulls a conveniently placed throw blanket over herself. She's quite cozy, and wiggles herself deeper into her little nest. Once settled, she waits a beat, and then another.

Finally, she hears, "Good," and the soft chuckle that follows. 

This time, the glow is bigger, warmer, and lasts longer. She wraps her arms around her belly and squeezes, rocking back and forth a little to sink herself into the comfortable feeling. When it finally fades away, she chooses a book and cracks it open with a happy sigh.

 


	5. Tuesday Night - Are You Staying?

The early afternoon passes quickly. Jong Kook has placed quite a nice stack of books for Ji Hyo to look through. There are a couple of current manhwas, as well as recent best seller fiction releases. At the bottom of the pile are a couple of large, thin books containing beautiful photography of animals and scenery around the world. Ji Hyo spends a long time paging through them, nestled comfortably in the little nest Jong Kook has created for her. While the "fort" initially felt weird and childish, she quickly warms to it, snuggling under the blanket and feeling cocooned from the stresses eminating from her phone and the massive pile of scripts and proposals. On the other side of the couch, she can hear Jong Kook flipping through papers, scribbling notes, and making the occasional murmured phone call, but she pays the sounds no mind. At one point, she even hears someone enter the apartment and leave again after 20 minutes or so, but she doesn't move from her blanket cave. Jong Kook said he'd come get her when he was done, so she feels no urgency to check and see what's going on. If she stops to think about it - which she does, once or twice, very briefly - that lack of urgency itself is strange. She knows he's going through her work for her and that should be stressful, but strangely, it's not. She feels completely at peace with letting him handle this. Just for today, she tells herself firmly. And she'll check over everything, of course. It's just for today.

Several hours must have passed before Ji Hyo hears a soft, "Knock knock," and looks up from her comic to see Jong Kook kneeling at the opening of her tent with a tray. 

"Are you hungry?," he asks as she sits up.

She touches her stomach and realizes she is.

"I thought so," he says, smiling at her. "If you want something, you just need to ask me, Ji Hyo. Please do that. For now, though, I've brought you a snack." He sits down crosslegged at the opening and sets the tray between them as she sits up. It's loaded with cut up fresh fruit.

"Oh, thank you," she says enthusiastically, reaching for a couple of pieces. "Are you done?," she asks, munching.

"Just a little bit more," he says. "I'm finished with the scripts and the endorsement proposals. Of course you should look over everything I've done, but I've picked a couple that I think are perfect for you and I hope you'll agree."

Ji Hyo nods. "But my manager said to pick six or seven endorsements," she says, making a face and selecting a piece of orange.

Jong Kook shakes his head. "No, that's too many. You don't need to be doing that many."

"It's just so hard to say no to him. I don't want to disappoint anyone." She sighs.

"That's why I'm doing it," he says, smiling at her warmly. "You finish up this fruit, okay? Here's a water bottle as well. It's got a lid so you can drink it while you're laying down without spilling."

Ji Hyo takes the plastic cup from him. "Wow, you think of everything, don't you?," she marvels.

"So you don't have to," he says cryptically, rustling her hair before standing. "I'll be maybe another 30 minutes or an hour, okay? After that, we'll go over what I've done, have dinner, and do something fun together, okay?"

"Okay," Ji Hyo agrees absently. She's already tugged the tray closer so she can reach it laying down and snuggled herself back down into the pillows.

* * *

About 45 minutes later, Jong Kook appears at the mouth of the blanket cave again. 

"I'm all set. Are you ready to go over it with me?"

"Ah... yes," Ji Hyo says, marking her page in her book and setting it carefully back on the table. She turns out the little light before crawling out of her tent, and doubles back quickly to grab her water cup. "Let's see what you've managed to make of that mess.

They circle around the couch to the front and Jong Kook sits down on one end of it. Ji Hyo stands hesitantly next to the table, looking between him and the cushion he's set on the floor for her.

"Your choice," he says easily, extending an arm across the back of the couch. "Here next to me, or there on the cushion."

Ji Hyo hestitates, running one foot over the other. She suddenly realizes she's still wearing only Jong Kook's t-shirt, and tugs it down to cover more of her thighs. He watches the motion with interest and she blushes and quickly moves to take a seat on the cushion, wanting a little bit of distance, though she's still pressed up against his leg in this position.

"All right," he says, leaning forward and pulling out her phone. "I took care of this first. You're off for these few days, Ji Hyo. Whether you decide to stay here with me or not is up to you, but you are  _off_  for these few days. Do you understand?" He grasps her chin lightly and turns her face to his. She stares into his eyes and nods slowly.

"Right," he continues, freeing her. "So I've answered all these messages to that effect. A couple of things, just some small meetings, I've set up for you for next week, but the rest, well." He shrugs. "They'll get over it. Now, these," he goes on, pulling over the endorsements. "I don't know why your manager sent some of these, aside from, of course, the paycheck, and I've told him as much. This stack here -" he shakes a thin sheaf of papers at her. "- is not even remotely worth your time, and I'm annoyed that he even sent them to you to look over. He should be filtering things like this out." Jong Kook shakes his head, clearly frustrated. "Again, I told him as much. But these," he shows her an even small bunch of paper. "These two, they're perfect for you. One cosmetics brand, just right for your age range - it's ridiculous that he wants you to consider these other ones for older women or teenagers. Playing against who you actually are right now isn't doing you any favors, and I feel like he's only got money on the mind, not your best interest."

Ji Hyo listens, rapt, at how he's cut through the bullshit and already took a chunk of garbage out of her life.

"And this other one, a hotel chain. It's upscale but still hip and trendy. It's just what you should be doing right now. The rest," he sweeps his arm in a gesture of disgust. "Is a no. No to all of this. I don't care that he wants you to do six or seven," he goes on before she can break in to protest. "If he wants you to do six or seven, he should bring you six or seven quality options, not this junk. And look at this!," he says, clearly getting more and more agitated. "The schedules and timelines for most of these overlap. Not only would you be running from one place to another without stop for days, you'd also be all over the television and magazines and billboards all at once. I get the concept of striking while the iron is hot, but overexposure isn't good for anything, either. Except, maybe, his paycheck," Jong Kook finishes on a grumble.

Ji Hyo is still silent, nodding along.

"I know it's presumptuous of me," he says with a small abashed grin, "but I've already sent the info to your manager. These are the two you will do, no others from this bunch, all right?"

She wants to protest, feels like she  _should_  protest, but can't actually argue with anything he's saying. Still, maybe a couple of words for the sake of asserting herself. Before she can think of anything to say, he pulls over the stack of scripts.

"Did he even read these?," Jong Kook shakes his head, gesturing to the notes her manager or agent or company owner or who even knows had left on them. "These notes don't make sense if you take five minutes to look into these offers." He rummages through the stack. "This is the only one worth your time. The role, I think would be challenging for you, but definitely in your wheelhouse. It's not a leading role, but it's a great side story that I know fans would get invested in. It's a chance to show some of the lesser-seen sides of your acting, and I think it would make audiences more willing to accept you in bigger, more dramatic roles in the future." He hands her the script.

She flips through it slowly, noting with interest that this is the one that was sent to her with a note stating it was ridiculous and sent only for her amusement. "I think...," she says hesitantly. "I think you're right. This looks really interesting."

"The best part," Jong Kook says, leaning back a bit now, "is that the part is scattered throughout the story and it's only going to shoot a couple of weeks ahead. That means your work would be spread out and manageable. Though I do wish dramas would move away from live shoots all together, but what are you going to do." He shrugs. "Can't change the world in a day, right?" He smiles at her and ruffles her hair. Her eyes half-close under the contact before they snap back open again.

"So, what do you think?," he asks. "Did I do good?"

"Actually... yes."

"You sound surprised."

"No, no, I'm not surprised, but..." Ji Hyo searches for the words. "It's not that I didn't think you could handle it all. I'm just... impressed. I think impressed is the word. You know, I probably would have just defaulted to my company's suggestions."

"I know," Jong Kook sighs and rubs his hands over his face. "It's a good company, Ji Hyo, but they're trying to work you into the ground, like they have to get all they can out of you in some limited time frame. One, that's not true - you have a long career ahead of you."

She glows under the praise.

"And two, that's how you keep getting caught in this cycle - too much work, too much of it not worth your effort, too tired, too hungry, too exhausted to think it through when more work options are placed in front of you. Until you're in a place mentally where you can choose the best options for yourself, they really should have someone there more invested in your best interests than the bottom line."

"And you're the guy invested in my best interests?," she jokes.

He leans down so her face is close to hers. "I am," he says simply and she's momentarily without words.

"Anyway." He stands. "I'll have my manager take these over to your company, as long as we're on the same page here?"

She nods.

"Great," he says with a smile. "Let's go have some dinner, okay?" He takes her hand and helps her up.

She hesitates. "Um, Jong Kook... this has been really great, but I should probably start thinking about heading home."

"Why's that?," he asks. "I just made sure your schedule is clear for the rest of the week. Surely you can at least stay for dinner."

"Well...," she hedges.

"Let's talk about it after we eat, okay?"

Still she hesitates.

"It would really make me happy if you'd stay for dinner, Ji Hyo." He holds her hand and looks into her eyes. She drops hers to the floor and nods in agreement, and he leads her to the kitchen.

Without being directed, Ji Hyo circles around to "her" seat at the table. She stands beside it and waits quietly while Jong Kook fetches the cushioned wooden block, then lets him lift her onto it. It doesn't feel nearly as strange as it had in the morning. She rests her elbows on the table and watches as Jong Kook putters around the kitchen, gathering the components of a light meal. She wrinkles her nose, noting that once again, it's a fairly vegetable-heavy meal.

"Do you need any help?," she asks.

"And how would you get down to help me?," he replies, grinning at her. She blushes. "You don't need to do anything but sit there and let me take care of you."

She nods, swinging her feet as she waits. After a few more minutes, he has a healthy meal spread out before them. They chat lightly about work, family, and friends as they eat. He only has to look pointedly at the dishes of vegetables he served her once before she dutifully starts in on them, choking down some of the lesser favorites.

Once her plate is cleared, Jong Kook nods approvingly. Ji Hyo waits expectantly, but he stands up to clear the table without saying anything. She frowns and rubs her stomach.

"Did you eat too much?," he asks, noticing the movement as he takes the last dishes to the sink.

"No... it's nothing. Just... nothing." She waits for him to help her down from her seat.

"Come with me," he says, leading her into the room she'd slept in the night before. Several items of her own clothing are now hanging in the closet and folded on the shelves. He leads her over to the bench in front of the vanity and guides her to sit facing out into the room instead of the mirror. She's briefly disappointed, her eyes darting to the hairbrush.

"All right, Ji Hyo," he says seriously, standing in front of her. "If you'd like, you can put on some of your own clothes and head home. I'll send the rest over tomorrow, so no need to pack up. You can just leave."

She waits.

"Or," he continues, "I can go get you another one of my shirts, since you've got soup all over that one," he chides lightly and she laughs. "And you can stay. You should know, though, that if you stay, starting tomorrow, you'll need to adhere completely to the rules. Without question."

She swallows.

"If you decide you'd like to go," he says, "we'll forget all of this ever happened. I'll be disappointed, of course, but I'll acknowledge that I didn't win our little challenge." Here, Ji Hyo blushes a deep red. She'd already forgotten the entire point of her being here for five days.

She chews her lower lip, thinking. Thinking about having her meals cooked for her, sleeping all she wants, and that cozy little tent in the living room. Time off from her life, a relief from stress, and nothing heavy to think about. Thinking about heading back to her own empty apartment, dealing with her phone that is sure to start ringing as soon as she's on her own again, and how neatly he wrapped up her schedule into something manageable. 

"What... what happens if I stay?," she asks quietly.

"Then the challenge begins in earnest," he says with a grin.

"And if I go?"

"Then the challenge never existed."

She takes a deep breath. Even if she stays, she knows he won't be able to convince her to have sex with him. And she'll still get all the benefits of being here. Yes, she'll have to obey all his "rules," but they're not so demanding at all, if she thinks through them. Do what he says. Fine. It's not like anything he's said so far has been totally off the wall, even if a _bit_  strange. Don't question anything. Fine by her. Turning her mind off for a few days is a welcome respite from life. Don't leave the apartment. Even if she went to her own place, she'd try not to come out of it as much as she could for these days off. So no big deal. It really seems like a no lose proposition from where she's sitting right then.

"Just a moment," he says after watching her think through her options, and leaves the room. He's back a moment later, and heads over to the closet, choosing a pair of jeans and a light, flowy blouse. He lays that outfit and one of his own t-shirts on the bed.

"You go ahead and change into whichever outfit suits you right now," he says. "I'll wait in the hall." He leaves again, but then sticks his head back in the door. "Ji Hyo," he says seriously. "It would make me very happy if you stayed." And he's gone.

She clutches her stomach as the now familiar heat blooms within it. Standing slowly, she approaches the bed, looking down at her two choices. Slowly, she pulls off the t-shirt she'd been wearing and folds it neatly onto the quilt. She looks back and forth between the two small piles of clothes - one her own, the other just Jong Kook's t-shirt, blue this time. She takes a deep breath, then picks up her clothing of choice.

It's not a moment before she notices a problem.

"JONG KOOK!," she yells. "THERE'S NO UNDERPANTS HERE."

The door cracks open, but he doesn't come in, giving her her privacy.

"I suppose it would be  _unreasonable_  of me to ask that you don't wear any?," he says laughingly.

"YES."

"On the shelf, Ji Hyo." He's still laughing as he pulls the door shut, and she stomps across the room to snatch a pair of her own panties from the shelf. She flushes at the idea of Jong Kook's manager choosing underwear for her, and can't help but notice they're all plain cotton. None of her flashier items made the cut. She storms back over to the bed and gets dressed, then flings open the door and steps into the hall.

Jong Kook is leaning against the opposite wall. He looks her up and down slowly and a grin spreads on his face.

"Good," he says quietly.


	6. Wednesday Morning - It Begins

Wednesday morning comes and Ji Hyo wakes up in the big bed again. She's not confused this time, but more amused, and spends a couple of moments rolling all the way from one side to the other, seeing how many times she can flop over before she reaches the edges. A lot. A lot of times. She yawns, stretches, and sits up, then scoots to the edge of the bed.

She looks to the ground, then to the bandages on her knee and elbow. She remembers Jong Kook's words from the night before.

After she'd decided to stay, she'd expected he'd begin the challenge in earnest, like he'd said. She didn't know quite what she thought that meant. That he'd touch her, or kiss her? Flaunt his muscles? She's still puzzled over how he intends to get her to want to have sex with him, though she does admit that the way she sees him has shifted in some way she can't quite describe. But he hadn't done anything, not that she could tell. They went back to the living room and watched a movie together. She'd started to sit down on the couch next to him, but he'd raised his eyebrows at her and indicated the cushion on the floor.

"But earlier, you were going to let me sit on the couch!," she'd exclaimed.

"And just now, you chose my t-shirt, which means you chose to stay, which means you chose the floor."

She'd huffed and flopped down on the cushion, leaning her back against the couch. He laughed softly and sat down to start the movie. After a moment, he pulled her head against his thigh to rest there and occasionally ran his hand over her hair as the movie played. When it was over, he walked her to her room and supervised her brushing her teeth before leading her back to the bed.

"You can get a shower in the morning," he said, and moved to grab her by the waist to lift her in to bed.

"Oh," she said, her eyes darting to the vanity and then to the floor.

He'd paused. "What?," he asked.

"Nothing."

"Ji Hyo, what?," he asked again.

"Nothing, I'm ready for bed."

"Ji Hyo, if you want something, you need to ask me for it."

She'd stayed stubbornly silent.

"Ji Hyo, while I'm still being patient. You agreed to follow the rules while you were here. What's rule one?"

"Do what you say," she'd grumbled, arms crossed over her chest, still staring at the floor.

"Look at me." His tone is firm, but not unkind, and she'd instantly lifted her eyes to his, shocked at herself for obeying without a thought.

When he had her attention, he said, "Do you want to ask me something?"

She mumbled.

"Clearly, please, Ji Hyo."

"Willyoupleasebrushmyhair?," she said in a rush, her face aflame.

"Of course," he replied, and lead her to the small bench. There had been no gloating or triumph in his voice, no attempt to shame or embarrass her for giving in to what he'd asked her to do. He brushed her hair, and when he was done, tucked her into bed and left her for the night with her big stuffed tiger.

Now, in the morning, she pinkens a bit, remembering all this. Still, he's already done so much for her, there's no reason she can't oblige him here, she reasons with herself. And that's all it is, the logical part of her mind asserts firmly. We're humoring him, that's all. That logical piece stomps down the memory of the night before, when she hadn't been just humoring him, when she was following rule two and doing what she felt without thinking it through.

"Jong Kook!," she calls loudly in a sing song voice. "Jong Kook!"

The door opens in a moment. 

"Good morning, Ji Hyo," he says with a smile. "Did you sleep well?"

"I did, thank you."

He stands in the doorway, waiting. Ji Hyo firmly reminds herself of the logical part of her that's ready to humor him, though now that he's here, it doesn't seem like such a challenge to follow the rules without reasoning herself into it.

"Can you please help me down?," she asks.

"Of course," he says, crossing the room quickly and fixing his hands around her waist. He lifts her slowly and lowers her to the floor close to his own body, her chest brushing against his as he does.

Ji Hyo feels a frission of energy cross her body at their proximity. She briefly wonders if somehow, he  _is_  accomplishing his mission without her even noticing, but quickly discards the thought as ridiculous. To cover her unsettlement, she says, "You -- you said I could take a shower today, right?"

"Right," Jong Kook agrees. "I already put your toiletries in the shower, though you can have a bath if you'd rather."

"No, a shower is fine," she says. "I'll probably go right back to sleep if I take a bath."

Jong Kook laughs. "Maybe at bedtime, then. There are towels and a robe in the linen closet in the bathroom. When you're done washing, you can put on the robe and call me so I can wash your hair."

"Jong Kook," she laughs, resting a hand on his chest, already adjusted to his nearness apparently. "I can wash my own hair."

"Ah, but I'd like to wash it for you," he says, smiling down at her.

"I... " She chews her lower lip, not sure how to respond to that.

"You'll sit on the edge of the tub and you can wear the robe, so there's nothing scandalous about it, right?"

"Right," Ji Hyo agrees slowly.

"So you won't have a problem letting me do this for you." He's still smiling at her, and his tone is still friendly, but somehow Ji Hyo knows she's not being offered a choice.

"Right," she says again slowly.

"All right," he says, smiling wider. "Off you go." He takes her by the shoulders and turns her, pointing her toward the bathroom, and gives her a gentle nudge.

She trudges slowly into the bathroom and shuts the door, stripping off his t-shirt and her underwear and leaving them in a pile on the floor. She removes the towel and robe from the closet almost mechanically, her mind going a mile a minute. Just what is his game? Washing her hair is supposed to make her want to have sex with him? If anything, it's just another point in favor of him being the gentle, considerate man she's always considered him to be. The kind of man who is perfect for  _someone_ , but just missing something, some little thing, that makes him not quite right for her. She shakes her head slowly, turning all the events of the last couple of days over in her mind. Maybe he's  _not_  actually trying to get her to want to have sex with him. Maybe he's just a good guy cutting a friend a break. But then, this is awfully far to go to do a friend a favor.

She continues to puzzle over it all as she turns on the shower and steps in. The dual massaging showerheads are a miracle, something she'd love to have in her own place for those long days where she only visits home long enough to wash and nap. Now, already as relaxed as she is, it feels like more of an extravagant indulgence. She takes her time, soaking and washing at her leisure, nowhere to be and no one waiting for her. Eventually, though, she's finished and anxiety clenches her chest. She steps out and dries herself off before wrapping up in the robe.

"Jong Kook," she calls softly, half-hoping that he won't hear her, won't come in, and oh well, she'll have to wash her own hair, but he's at the door in a split second. He must have been sitting just outside.

"All set?," he asks.

"Uh... yes," she replies.

"Okay, sit on the edge of the tub, please."

She does, clutching the robe tighter around herself.

"Ji Hyo," he laughs as he collects the magenta bottle of no tears shampoo from the shower. "I'm not going to try to steal your virtue here. I'm going to wash your hair." He pulls the bathroom vanity stool over to the edge of the tub and leans over to turn on the water, checking it for an appropriate temperature. "Lean your head back," he says. "Let me know if this is too hot or too cold."

Ji Hyo is tense at first, waiting for something to happen, though she doesn't know what. Nothing happens, though. Nothing aside from Jong Kook washing her hair, anyway, and she slowly relaxes into the soothing touch. When a bit of water slips down into her eyes, he quickly grabs the towel she'd used to dry herself and dabs at them.

"See? I told you we needed the no tears stuff," he jokes.

Ji Hyo stiffens again, remembering when he'd insisted on the children's shampoo. The wheels turn in her head and she realizes he must have planned this from the start.

"Ji Hyo," he says suddenly, his voice serious. Her eyes stay closed to keep more water out of them, but she listens tensely. 

"I want you to stop what you're doing now."

She cracks one eye to peer at him questioningly.

"For the last couple of days, I can practically see the thought bubbles above your head. You're trying to figure out what I'm up to, and I know it. I want you to stop now."

She clenches her eye shut again and tightens her jaw.

"Ji Hyo, listen to me," he says, more insistent now. "You do not need to think about this. You do not need to try to figure anything out. You do not need to stay one step ahead of me. All you need to do is follow the rules. You don't need to worry about me, or what I'm thinking or doing, or anything at all. Nothing is going to happen to you here."

She's still uncertain, but starting to feel strangely lulled by the tone of his voice and his words. He continues to massage her scalp as he talks.

"While I finish with your hair, I want you to think about the rules that you agreed to, especially rule two. I know it will be hard for you to follow that one. I know you've been taking care of yourself for a long time, and dropping that self-preservation line of thinking won't be easy for you. For the next few days, all you need to do is be here under the guidelines I've set out. Stop trying to figure out what I'm up to. There's not going to be a gotcha moment, nothing scary is going to pop out and get you. You just relax and try your hardest to follow the rules. That is  _all_  I want you to do for the next couple of days, do you understand?"

She says nothing.

"Ji Hyo?"

"I understand," she says quietly.

"All right," he says, finishing the rinsing. "We're all done here." He attempts to wrap the towel around her hair after squeezing the excess water out. It repeatedly flops down over her eyes. "Okay, clue me in, how the hell do women DO this?," he finally exclaims in frustration.

She laughs, not even noticing as the tension slides out of her. She bends at the waist to demonstrate the standard towel turban.

"I still didn't get that," he grumbles. "I'll work on it. Are you hungry?"

Ji Hyo nods.

"All right, let's go get you dressed." He leads her back into the bedroom. "I'll be in the kitchen when you're ready." He heads out, leaving her alone.

There's clothes laid out on the bed already, and Ji Hyo is momentarily miffed that he's chosen an outfit for her. Approaching the bed, though, she can see that it's not much of an outfit, just another one of his t-shirts. She lifts it up and looks underneath. Of course, there are no underpants.

"JONG KOOK!," she yells, and she can hear him down the hall laughing to himself.

Once again, she stomps over to the closet to snag a pair of underwear. She stops in shock when she reaches it. All her clothes are gone. The underpants are still there, but where before several shirts, skirts, and jeans had been neatly arranged, there is only a small stack of what she assumes are Jong Kook's t-shirts. Puzzled, she takes a pair of underwear and walks slowly back to the bed, looking back over her shoulder a couple of times to make sure she's not somehow missing her own items in the wide open closet. No, just the small stack of shirts, the rest of the shelves and bars bare.

She sighs and supposes this somehow falls under rule one. She pulls his selected shirt over her head and moves to the door, pulling it open as her stomach growls. 

She takes one step out and then quickly turns back, tiptoeing rapidly across the room to the vanity. Grabbing up the hairbrush, she darts back across the room and steps out, pulling the door closed quietly behind her.


	7. Wednesday Afternoon - Something Missing

After Ji Hyo politely asks Jong Kook to brush her hair and he obliges her willingly, breakfast goes much the same as the day before. Ji Hyo waits to be placed in her seat and allows Jong Kook to place food in front of her. They chat aimlessly, in a friendly way. When he finishes, he starts doing the dishes and they continue to talk as Ji Hyo finishes her own food.

When she's done, she announces as much, and he dries his hands and comes to lift her down from her seat. She waits next to him quietly, but after setting her on the ground, he just leans over to grab her plates and carries them to the sink without saying anything.

Ji Hyo stands next to the table, scrubbing one toe over the floor.

"Why don't you go read for a while?," he suggests over his shoulder. "I put some new books on your table."

"Oh," she says uncertainly. "Okay." She waits a moment, lingering in the kitchen, but he doesn't say any more, just gives her an encouraging smile.

She makes her way to the living room, rubbing her stomach. He watches her go and his smile widens.

Once in the living room, she rounds the couch and crawls into the tent that's still standing from the day before. She knows she could easily take the books out and carry them someplace else, like to the bed in the room where she's staying, or even just out to the cushion in front of the couch, but finds that right now, she prefers the idea of being closed in and cozy. She works her way to the back of the little cave and looks through the new books. Like the day before, there's a similar selection. Some best sellers, some comics, some books with beautiful photography. She spots a cute romance she vaguely remembers making a mental note to read, even knowing she'd never find the time. She's more than pleased to find herself in the same space as that book, with time to read it. With a wriggle of delight and a little mental thanks to Jong Kook, she settles herself in to read.

After about 15 minutes, he appears at the opening created by the blankets. She lowers her book to look at him.

"Here you go," he says, passing her another plastic cup with a lid. "Water."

"Oh, thank you," she replies, and looks at him, waiting.

"You're welcome." He smiles at her and makes a move to get up.

"Oh, um."

"Yes?," he asks.

"Um, my phone?"

"I've got it." He stands the rest of the way.

"Can I --" she calls after him.

"No," he replies, and she watches as his legs vanish out of sight.

What?  _No_? Ji Hyo lays the book on her chest, completely puzzled. But he'd said she could have her phone whenever she wanted, hadn't he? She rubs her head. She can't quite remember. The other morning, when she'd asked for her phone to do her work, he'd handed it over without so much as a blink. What had changed since then? She can't think of anything, except the fact that she'd decided to stay the rest of the five days. And once she'd done that... The offer to sit on the couch was gone. Her clothes were gone. Her ability to wash her own hair was gone. And now her phone is gone. She swallows, finding it difficult as her chest begins to tighten. When she'd made the decision to stay, to humor him, it hadn't seemed like there were any great stakes. But now she's agreed to be here and to follow his rules, and there seems to have been some kind of subtle shift in his behavior. A shift, it seems, that in his mind, she completely agreed to. Did she? She swallows again as that beaten down logical part of her mind ramps up. She  _can_  just leave. It's not like he can actually keep her here. She doesn't have to follow through with any of this just because she chose his t-shirt over her own clothes, just because she decided to take advantage of offered hospitality for a night or two. There's no law keeping her here, the challenge was just a silly sort of bet that she knows he's not going to win anyway. She can crawl right out, demand her clothes and phone, and leave right now.

But then... the new piece of her starts its own campaign. She clearly doesn't  _need_  her phone right now. He already showed he can handle anything that comes in over it, and it's not like he handled anything poorly. In fact, he dealt with everything that came across her plate much more efficiently and sensically than she  _ever_  has. And even if there  _has_  been some shift in his personality since the night before, is it anything so terrible? He washed her hair for her. Weird, but kind and soothing. He fed her, he brushed her hair, he's letting her relax and read. Nothing is  _that_  different. And he already assured her he had no plans to demand she have sex with him or force himself on her or anything like that. Even if things  _are_  a little strange, she knows she's safe and cared for here. There's no  _real_  reason to cut and run, other than her own uncertainty. And! The new part of her mind crows triumphantly, rule two! We're not even supposed to be thinking about any of this.

Right. Ji Hyo nods firmly, succumbing to the part of her that quickly seems to be taking over, while her logical mind shrieks in protest in the background. She goes back to her book.

It's quite some time later when she crawls out to use the bathroom. Jong Kook hadn't say anything about coming to get her at any point, and she just assumes she's been left to her own devices to enjoy her time off. Rounding the couch, she's surprised to see him sitting there, reading a book of his own. He looks up.

"Hello," he says, closing the book with a smile. "Are you having a good day?"

She nods. "I, uh, need to use the bathroom," she says.

"Go ahead," he nods, and she runs off down the hall, quickly squashing down a brief thought about why she even told him where she was going. 

When she comes back, he asks jokingly, "Did you wash your hands?" and she rolls her eyes at him.

"Jong Kook," she starts hesitantly.

"Yes?," he asks, eyebrows raised expectantly.

"Where are my clothes?"

"I put them away."

"Why?"

"You don't need them."

"Of course I need them!"

"What for?," he asks neutrally, setting his book on the couch. 

"To, you know, clothe myself!"

"Haven't I given you enough to wear?"

She looks down at the t-shirt that comes to an inch or two above her knees.

"Yes, but, this is like... pajamas."

"Oh, are you going somewhere?," he asks.

"I'm not allowed to leave without you, remember?," she asks a bit bitingly.

"Right," he agrees. "And don't you think that if we did need to leave, I'd give you something to wear?"

"Of course, but..."

"But what?"

"But  _why_  do I have to wear your shirts all the time?"

"Because it's sexy," he says simply, and she's taken aback.

"I thought -- I thought the goal of these five days was to make me want to have sex with  _you_ , not the other way around."

"I don't need any help with wanting to have sex with you, Ji Hyo," he says seriously, and she's startled again.

"You want to have  _sex_  with me?" She doesn't know why she's shocked.

He laughs. "Of course I do."

"But you said you're not going to try to have sex with me this week."

"I did say that," he agrees.

She jams her hands into her hair in frustration. "I don't understand what's going on! If I just say okay and have sex with you, will this be over?"

"No."

She turns an amazed look on him. "Kim Jong Kook, what the hell is going on? How long have you wanted to have sex with me?," she demands.

He shrugs. "Forever, probably."

"So you were just waiting for some random drunken opportunity?" She feels anger building and he stands, crossing the room to her.

"Yes," he says honestly. "But it never came. I have always known you weren't interested back in the same way."

"And now you're trying to prove to yourself that you can change my mind?"

"Not at all," he says and she stomps her foot. He laughs lightly. "Ji Hyo, I asked you not to think about this too much, and I meant it. I'll humor you this one last time, but after this, do not expect me to explain myself to you again." His tone is firm and something in her shrinks. "I've always thought you were beautiful, sexy, and I'm a man. I'm into that. Sue me. I never acted on it because you're right, I'm a respectful guy who treats women they way they want to be treated. It never went away, though."

She's silent, staring into his chest as he speaks.

He continues. "I've watched you over the years, not waiting for a chance to fuck you, but just because you're sexy and beautiful. And watching you, over time, I realized that I have something to show you. The chance came up to show you, and I took it. I'm taking it."

"Again,  _what_  are you trying to show me?," she asks. "Some latent desire I've been harboring to have sex with you?"

"No," he shakes his head. "Though I still do believe that you  _will_  want to, even if you don't right now."

She snorts in annoyance. Never, she tells herself.

"Then what?," she asks.

"You'll know it when you see it," he says cryptically.

"And if I don't?"

He shrugs. "Then nothing. Then I was wrong. But I don't think I am."

She blows out a frustrated breath.

"Ji Hyo," he says, taking her chin between his fingers and lifting her face so their eyes meet. "I won't explain myself again, as I said. You will stay here for the five days, and you will follow the rules. I've been lenient until now because I know you're confused, but I'm at the end of my patience at this point. I haven't asked anything of you that you can't do. I don't believe in tit for tat in friendships, but I'd like you to keep in mind all I've done for you so far. I'm not saying that in the sense that at the end of this five days, you'll  _owe_  me something like sex. I'm saying that I'm not asking for much in return, and I expect you to give me what I've asked for."

She stares up at him, unmoving, fixated on his voice and the tone he's using.

"Now here, after explaining myself, it would probably be appropriate to offer you one more chance to make the decision to stay. However, I won't be doing that. You've already decided and it's done. End of discussion." He lets go of her chin. "Do you understand?"

She drops her face.

"Answer me, Ji Hyo," he says, and for the first time, she can hear that frayed patience he spoke of.

"I understand," she responds quickly. 

"Okay," he says, and walks away from her to sit on the couch.

She remains frozen on the spot, waiting for something, but she doesn't know what. He watches her with interest. Her hand drifts to her stomach and she looks down at it, feeling that something unnameable is missing. She doesn't see his grin as he turns his face down to his book.

"Go read a little longer, Ji Hyo," he says without looking up. "I'll make us a snack in a few minutes."

She nods, her head thick and confused, and slowly makes her way back into her tent.


	8. Wednesday Night - They're Everywhere

The rest of the afternoon passes in a haze for Ji Hyo. She mechanically eats the snack Jong Kook brings her, thanking him. She stays inside her cave reading until he calls her out to watch a movie with him. She's so absorbed in her own thoughts, she blindly follows his requests without protest. Eat this, sit here, drink your water. He's observing her carefully as the day passes on, but she pays him very little mind, only responding when asked a direct question. 

The trouble, though, with being absorbed in her own thoughts, is that she can't direct them where she wants them to go. She's gotten such a confusing batch of information throughout the day. Jong Kook wants to fuck her, but he isn't going to. Having sex with him wouldn't put an end to his little challenge, or more accurately, what seems like an experiment now. She no longer has the option to leave, though of course that threads of the little logical piece that are left keep insisting that she does. Every time she tries to put this together to make some kind of sense out of it all, the new piece of her, the unfamiliar ball of unidentified feelings that has taken up residence in her belly, objects firmly. Ignore it, ignore it. Read a book, eat a snack, enjoy your time off, nothing to see here.

On top of that, she's coping with a disturbing empty feeling. She methodically checks in with herself - is she hungry? No. Tired? Not really. Scared? Of Jong Kook? Not at all. Stressed? Surprisingly, no. But something feels off, something isn't right, and she just can't put her finger on it. Her mind just drifts from one fragmented thought to the next never really forming any full conclusions, and not really able to work up any legitimate distress over that fact. Something about the relief of these few days, the lack of responsibility, the absence of need to go through the motions of self-care and rest, has blanketed her in a thick layer of calm that she can't shake. That she doesn't really  _want_  to shake. 

Eventually, dinner time rolls around and she follows Jong Kook to the kitchen. She lifts her arms to make it easier for him to lift her and place her on her seat. He initiates the same kind of light chatter throughout the meal, friendly talk, and she feels the haze around her dissipate a bit. She enjoys joking back and forth with him, finds his presence comfortable and entertaining. They talk about their recent projects, what they have coming up, and what they're looking forward to. As they talk, Ji Hyo makes her way through all the food put in front of her, and when it's gone, Jong Kook stands to clear the table. 

Coming around to her end to grab her plates, he observes, "You ate all your vegetables."

"I did," she nods as he lifts her to the floor.

He turns to leave the room. "I'm going to go run you a bath."

"Wait!," Ji Hyo calls suddenly, clutching her stomach.

"Yes?" He turns, looking at her curiously.

"I... " She suddenly realizes she has no idea what she wanted to say.

"Do you need something, Ji Hyo?"

"Um... no. No, I don't think so." A puzzled expression flits quickly across her face and Jong Kook fights his own smile as he catches it.

"All right," he says neutrally. "A bath, then?"

"Yes, a bath would be nice."

"Okay, just wait, and it will be ready in a few minutes." He vanishes down the hall.

Ji Hyo looks down, surprised to find her hands clutching her stomach. She rubs it gently. Maybe she ate too much. Maybe she didn't eat enough? She sighs with frustration. She looks around the kitchen, absently noting that her chair  _does_  seem quite a bit lower than all the other chairs, now that she thinks about it. She tilts her head, wondering why just one chair is so different than all the others.

In a moment, Jong Kook appears in the kitchen door. "Oh, here you are," he says.

"You said to wait," she replies simply.

He grins at her. "I did indeed. Your bath is ready. Let's go." He holds out his hand to her and she crosses the kitchen, taking it and allowing him to lead her down the hall to her room and into the bathroom where an absolute  _mountain_  of bubbles is filling the enormous tub.

She looks to the tub and then back to him hesitantly, color rising in her cheeks.

"Relax," he says laughingly. "I'm not going to watch you bathe. But we just washed your hair, so let me take care of this first."

He reaches over to the counter and pulls apart one of the packages of hair ties he'd purchased earlier in the week. They go flying everywhere. He grumbles and snags one from the floor, sliding it onto his wrist. Ji Hyo giggles a little at the image.

"Turn around."

She does, and he gathers her hair up into a messy ball on top of her head.

"Okay, so I just put this through here and -- oh, it broke." He bends down to grab another, then gathers her hair again. "All right, so -- damnit!" Another tie snaps in his hand, and Ji Hyo laughs out loud.

"I told you we needed a lot of these," he grumbles, grabbing another. This time, he manages to make a floppy yet serviceable bun on top of Ji Hyo's head. "I'll work on that," he promises, and she smiles at him. He smiles back and then gives her a nudge.

"All right, into the bath with you. Take as long as you need. I'll put some clothes here for you on the counter, so come out when you're dressed and your teeth are brushed and I'll tuck you into bed."

She nods, not bothering to question this routine anymore. Once he leaves, she strips down and sinks beneath the bubbles. After a moment, there's a light knock on the door and it opens. Jong Kook steps in with clothes in one hand and the other covering his eyes.

"I'm just going to leave these," he explains.

"I'm covered in bubbles," she laughs. "You can uncover your eyes so you don't crack your skull."

"Ah," he says and takes his hand down with a smile. He gives her a lingering glance that has the heat climbing up her neck again, even though just her head is poking out above the thick froth. "All right, here's something for you to wear tonight. Just come out when you're done. No hurry." With that, he sets the clothes down and leaves.

* * *

Thirty or forty minutes later, Ji Hyo really has no idea how long, the water has cooled and she's ready to get out. She's limp and sleepy and relaxed as she dries herself with an enormous fluffy towel, idly wondering why it's yet another thing in Jong Kook's house that is so strangely sized. It nearly wraps around her twice as she stands at the counter, washing her face and brushing her teeth.

Once she's all ready for bed, she picks up the pile of clothes Jong Kook left for her. It is, of course, a t-shirt. Black this time. She slides it over her head and looks at the counter. Then under the counter. Then all around the room.

"JONG KOOK!," she yells in frustration, and hears him laugh just outside the door. It opens a crack and his hand pokes in, a pair of panties dangling from one finger. She storms over and snatches them away, nearly catching his hand as she slams the door shut again.

A moment later, she pulls the door open. Jong Kook is sitting close by, on the vanity stool. At her exit he grins shamelessly at her and she glares.

"You can't blame a guy for trying, right?," he says lightly, standing and gesturing for her to take a seat. She does, and he carefully unwinds her hair from on top of her head, cursing under his breath as he snaps yet another elastic band.

Ji Hyo sits quietly, eyes half shut, as he begins to brush her hair. 

He's quiet as well, until he's finished. When he sets the brush down, she stands and moves to the edge of the bed, waiting.

As he lifts her into the bed and waits for her to scoot to the center, he says, "Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you something."

Ji Hyo turns to look at him as he pulls down a corner of the covers and she scrambles under.

"Oh? What's that?" She waits to hear some new rule or regulation or requirement or revelation about this whole admittedly pleasant ordeal.

"Yesterday, the exterminator came."

Ji Hyo vaguely remembers someone entering and exiting the apartment while she was reading in her tent.

"Oh, good," she says. "I do hate bugs." She shivers involuntarily.

"Yeah, he did the whole building," Jong Kook says. "So there won't be any bugs. Except every time he comes, he does remind me that after he sprays, it's not unusual for the bugs in the walls that have been poisoned to come out and kind of flop around for a bit before they die." He does a comical impression of a bug flopping around and Ji Hyo tries to smile. "So don't be worried if you see a lot of spiders and other bugs," he tells her, tucking the quilt tightly around her. "They'll die soon."

"I... um. Oh. Okay," she says uncertainly, her eyes already darting to all the darkened corners of the room, getting darker as the light outside fades.

"You're all set," he says cheerfully. "See you in the morning!" He leaves, pulling the door shut and leaving Ji Hyo in the dark.

As soon as he's gone, she sits right up. She wiggles out from under the covers and crawls to the edge of the bed, peering as far to the edges of the room as she can see. She quickly scoots to the other side of the bed and does the same, then moves herself to the dead center of the bed, head swiveling on her neck. She stays there, frozen, occasionally slapping at imaginary tickles on her arms and legs, until she feels like she's about to go crazy.

"Jong Kook!," she yells, almost before she knows what she's doing. "Jong Koooook!"

The door flies open and his form is silhouetted in the frame, light from another open door filtering in.

"What's wrong, Ji Hyo?," he asks.

"Um, can I stay up a little longer? I'm not tired," she lies.

She can see his body tense a bit. "That's not true, Ji Hyo. I know you're very tired. It's time to go to bed."

"Oh." She looks down at her hands. "Well, can you turn on the light? Maybe I will read for a while?" She says it like it's a question, testing what he'll allow.

"It's time to sleep, Ji Hyo," he says firmly. "Besides, there are no lights in here."

"What? Of course there..." She trails off as she looks around the room in the dark. He's right, there  _are_  no lights. But yesterday... she was sure... maybe not? She rubs her head in confusion.

"Is something wrong, Ji Hyo?," Jong Kook asks.

She shakes her head mutely.

"Ji Hyo, are you scared of something?"

She hesitates and his position in the doorway shifts with impatience. She nods.

"The bugs," she whispers. "I feel like they're everywhere."

"They're probably not," he says soothingly. "And if they are, they'll be dying soon."

She gives a full body shiver at the idea of dying bugs coming out of the walls.

"Is there something you need?," he asks? She can hear the patience in his tone, but also senses that it's not endless.

"Can I sleep with you?," she blurts, then claps her hands over her mouth. She quickly pulls one away and waves it at him, trying to erase the words out of the air. "That's not what I meant!," she mumbles from behind her hand, and he laughs.

"I know what you meant," he says, crossing the room to her. "And yes, you can. You only need to ask me for what you need, Ji Hyo, and I'll always do my best to give it to you."

She feels a small flicker of feeling at his words which quickly retreats, leaving the same hollow sensation that plagued her all day in its place.

He places his hands on her waist and lifts her down from the bed. When he goes to set her feet on the floor, she quickly wraps her legs around his hips with a yelp to keep them from touching.

"Ji Hyo," he laughs. "Are you part spider monkey?"

"Bugs," she whispers urgently, looking over her shoulder at the floor.

He laughs harder and sets her back on the bed, turning his back to her. "All right," he says. "Grab your tiger and climb on, spider monkey."

She gratefully scrambles across the bed to grab her giant stuffed tiger, then wraps her legs and one arm around Jong Kook from behind, a position she's more than familiar with. Once she's secure, he hoists her up and carries her down the hall just a bit, to a door on the opposite side from her own. Once in the door, he tries to set her down again, but she clings even more intently and he grunts.

"Ease up, Ji Hyo," he wheezes, and she loosens her grip just a bit. She looks around. The room is about the same size as her own, with the walls painted a dark gray, illuminated by a single floor lamp near a large black bed. It's not quite as big as her own, but still huge. It's also much closer to the floor, she notes with a wry expression on her face. Instead of setting her on the floor, he carries her to a long, thickly padded bench that lines the foot of the bed, almost level with the mattress but just a couple of inches lower. She quickly pulls her feet up onto the surface.

Once she's settled, he heads to his closet and pulls out a pillow and thick, soft blanket. He places the pillow at one end of the bench and motions for her to lay down, then covers her and her tiger snugly. 

"I'll be right back," he says, entering a door next to the closet, and she can hear the water running and the sounds of him brushing his teeth. She sits up, alternating watching the door and scanning the floor for bugs. After a moment, he comes back out, wearing nothing but gym shorts. Her eyes move to his chest like magnets and she only tears them away when she hears him chuckle as he climbs into his own bed.

Before laying down, he reaches up and turns off the light. He settles in.

"Lay down, Ji Hyo."

She does instantly, pulling the covers up to her chin and waiting.

"Good night," he says, and then is silent.

Ji Hyo lies awake in the dark for a long time, waiting for something that doesn't come.


	9. Thursday Morning - No Results

The next morning, Jong Kook awakes with the uncomfortable feeling of being watched. Opening his eyes, he's startled to find himself nose to nose with Ji Hyo, who is leaning over him in the bed with one hand planted on each side of his chest.

"Good morning," she chirps as soon as his eyes open. "I'm hungry. Please give me food."

He laughs and runs a hand over his face before taking her by the shoulders and gently tumbling her off of him.

"All right, all right," he grumbles. "Give me a second." He yawns and stretches as she sits up next to him, watching with interest as the sheet falls away from his chest. He rolls his eyes at her, but still smiles.

He stands and heads to the bathroom and Ji Hyo can hear the water running. She scoots to the edge of the bed to wait for him, and when he emerges, lifts her arms expectantly.

"Ji Hyo," he says, approaching her with a small laugh. "This bed is not nearly as high."

"Oh," she says, looking around and peering down at the floor. "It's not."

Her arms are still raised, though, so Jong Kook grabs her and takes her down from the bed anyway.

"To the kitchen," he says, pointing, and she skips out of the room ahead of him. He trudges sleepily down the hall and when he arrives in the kitchen, she's already waiting next to her chair.

"Would you like to sit next to me in this chair instead of that one today?," he asks.

She briefly considers his question, looking back and forth between him and then chair and then, quickly, her eyes flicker down to her stomach and back to his, so fast he barely catches it. But he does catch it, of course.

"No," she says. "I'll sit here. I... I like to sit across from you," she finishes hurriedly.

"Fair enough," Jong Kook says, retrieving the cushioned block from the pantry and setting it squarely on the chair before placing her on top.

They chat while he assembles breakfast, just a light soup and some warmed up leftover vegetables. She makes quick work of her food as they chat about plans for the day - he'll be going to the gym for a while, she's free to do what she'd like, in the apartment, of course. When she's done, she subtly - she thinks - nudges her empty plates forward a bit, waiting for him to notice, but he says nothing, just clearing the plates and helping her down when she's done. She huffs in frustration as she follows him out of the kitchen, and he hides a grin with his back to her.

Once in the living room, he tells her, "Let's go take showers. I'll start yours and go take mine, then come wash your hair, all right?"

She nods, standing close to him, and follows him down the hall. When he stops abruptly at her door, she runs flat into his back, bounces off, and falls to the floor. He shakes his head and reaches down to pull her back up.

"You're not normally clumsy, Ji Hyo," he chides her jokingly. She shrugs, feeling distracted and tense this morning, and follows him into the bathroom. She sits on the stool while he starts up her shower and lays out the towel and robe for her.

"Take your time," he says. "I'll be back."

Once he leaves the room, she takes her clothes off and gets in the shower. As the water warms her, her head begins to clear a bit. What is  _with_  her this morning? Everything feels just fine and all wrong at the same time. She woke up in such a good mood, having slept solidly on the bench in Jong Kook's room, and now... now she feels hollow and strange.

She notes with surprise that the reasonable part of her hasn't made much of an appearance today, with the other part, the part that seems to be almost filling her now, just happy to go with the flow and follow Jong Kook's lead. She washes herself slowly, muddling over these thoughts, but once again, there's no real conclusion. She knows she's not uncomfortable here anymore - far from it - but doesn't understand  _why_  everything suddenly seems so normal. Or, she thinks, maybe not so suddenly. It seems her adjustment to Jong Kook's weird house, his rules, and the man himself has crept up on her.

She's just wrapping the robe around herself when he opens the door. Much to her own shock, she finds herself taking her time with tying the robe, pretending to fumble with the cord so it slips off her shoulder a bit. Jong Kook comes up behind her and pulls it up over her exposed skin without a word and bends to start the water through the extended hose in the tub and get it to the proper temperature. She scowls at his back but schools her expression before he turns around.

When directed, she sits on the edge of the tub and quietly lets Jong Kook wash her hair, all thoughts of annoyance flitting from her mind. She's always loved having her hair washed and brushed. Probably the best part of being a celebrity is how often she gets to have her hair professionally styled, though she does sleep right through many of the appointments as they work on her. Thinking about this now, she's surprised to realize she's not especially tired, but with none of the anxiety that comes from wondering what she should have been doing when she finally gets all the sleep she needs. She smiles to herself before remembering that it's already Thursday and this idyllic little break will end the next day. She sighs.

When he's done, Jong Kook leads her back to her bedroom, where he brushes her hair then directs her to the clothes he's laid out on the bed for her. Spying the t-shirt, she frowns at him expectantly, arms crossed over her chest, and he laughs.

"Get them from the shelf, Ji Hyo," he calls over his shoulder as he leaves her alone to dress.

* * *

A short time later, she joins him in the living room. He's sitting on the couch with both of their phones, alternating between the two. 

As she enters, he looks up. "I'm going to leave for the gym in about 20 minutes," he says. "You can read or do whatever you want today, the remote is right here." He gestures to the edge of the coffee table with his head, then turns his attention back to the phones and a small notepad balanced on his knee.

Ji Hyo slowly circles around behind the couch, taking larger than usual steps that make the t-shirt ride up her thighs. As she passes him, she glances over to check his reaction and frowns to see he hasn't even glanced up at her again. In a last second decision, before making her way around the couch, she instead scoots between the couch and the coffee table and sits down on the cushion Jong Kook has placed there. 

He still doesn't look up.

She frowns and scoots the cushion a bit closer, then looks up for his reaction. 

Nothing.

She bounces her butt, holding the cushion with her hands, and brings it right up against his foot, pressing her side against his bare leg.

Now he looks up. "Oh, hello," he says, and smiles down at her before going back to what he was doing.

She sighs heavily.

"Are you bored, Ji Hyo?," he asks blandly and without answering, she stands up and storms back around the couch, practically diving into her little cave. The sound of his soft laughter only infuriates her more.

When he stands to leave about 15 minutes later, she's laying on her side in the tent, arms wrapped around herself, fuming about she doesn't even know what.

"Ji Hyo," he calls. "I'm going to go now."

She says nothing.

"Ji Hyo, I'm leaving."

She huffily flops onto her other side and his feet appear in front of the opening.

"Ji Hyo," he says, bending down and laughing at her. "Come out of there."

She grudgingly crawls out, stuffing down even more anger at being forced to crawl practically to his feet, and stands. 

"Do you need anything before I go?," he asks. "Ah," he says, answering himself. "Let me get your water."

She stands silently, her mouth twisted in a scowl, while he jogs to the kitchen and opens the fridge. A moment later, he's back with the plastic-lidded cup.

"I'll stay out of there while you're gone," she says sullenly. "I don't need a lid."

"What if you get tired?," he says reasonably. "Just take this."

"Jong Kook," she whines.

"I'm not asking you, Ji Hyo." His tone is flat, one she hasn't heard before, and she quickly takes the cup from his hand in response. She even lifts it to her mouth and takes a long drink, staring at him the whole time.

"Okay, do you need more books? Anything? I'll be gone several hours."

She shakes her head, lowering the cup defeatedly and trying to ignore the shame burning in her. She lowers her eyes.

"All right then," he says agreeably. "I'll be back later. I've made a snack for you already, it's in the fridge under plastic. Eat it whenever you get hungry." He suddenly takes both her upper arms in his hands and she looks up at him to find his face close to hers.

"Remember the rules. Behave yourself. I'll see you later." He drops a quick kiss on her forehead and departs quickly, leaving her frozen with a chill dancing up her spine.

 


	10. Thursday Afternoon - Waiting and Thinking

After Jong Kook leaves, Ji Hyo stands where he left her for a long time. The chill that had travelled up her spine increases instead of dissapating as she stands there thinking. He  _kissed_  her. Sure, it was just on the forehead, but still. He kissed her and she  _liked_  it. It's not that she felt incredibly turned on or immediately wanted to hop into bed with him, but something else. She feels an incredible rush of affection for Jong Kook, one that grabs on and won't let go.

It's not  _that_  strange, she reasons with herself. They're friends, and she's always appreciated him as a good friend. But over the last couple of days, she knows something is shifting. Of course it is. She knows something is shifting, and she knows he's the one doing it. She's certain he has some sort of end game. In face, he's admitted as much. But what  _is_  it? Is his plan to make her want to have sex with him and then abandon her, laughing at her? She shakes her head. That doesn't sound like Jong Kook at all.

She slowly walks around the couch as she thinks. Absently, she sits down at one end, then jerks her head up, looking around. She quickly slides down to the floor and onto her cushion, not even registering the strange act as she does it. She places her plastic water cup on the coffee table, leaning her elbows on it, determined to get to the bottom of what's been going on. She can feel her mind clearing a bit now that he's not hovering near by, making the thoughts come easier, if not exactly perfectly clear.

She taps her finger on her lips as she thinks. The original goal, she thinks. That night they were drinking, he said "I can make you want to have sex with me." If it was  _her_ , and she was him, this is not exactly how she'd have gone about it. She'd have worn less clothes around the house, for one thing. She frowns, slightly wistful, wishing that was the route he'd taken. Her cheeks heat, remembering his care chest from that morning. She readily admits to herself that having sex with him wouldn't be any kind of hardship. It would probably be quite nice. He's been so gentle and caring, and of course that would translate to the bedroom.

That's what's getting her right now, though. He's been nothing but gentle and caring. She knows he's not stupid. She knows he knows that's exactly why she chose Gary over him during that stupid game. So why would he keep displaying that side of himself to her if his goal was to get her to want to get into bed with him? He said he was trying to show her something. What, exactly? Trying to show her what a good guy he is? She already knows that. And there's nothing wrong with that. If she was in the market for a relationship, it's possible that that's exactly what she'd seek out. A kind, respecful, decent man, for a kind, respectful, decent relationship. Fact is, though, she's too busy for a relationship, though she doesn't exactly lack for companionship.

It's not that she has a ton of casual sex, of course. She only seeks it out once in a while, when a gnawing empty space inside her gets too big to bear any longer. And for that, for those encounters that hold her over against some unnamed emptiness, Jong Kook is not the type of person she gravitates to. There's a certain type of man, one she'd never date or even really be friends with, that she knows when she sees. She knows that with that type of man, one quick night will get her what she needs. She's never stopped to question what exactly it is she needs, but like Jong Kook said earlier, she knows it when she sees it. And everything she knows about Jong Kook up to this point shows her that he's not it.

She flops back against the couch with a heavy sigh. Slowly, an unwelcome thought creeps in. It seems it's time for that logical part of herself, battered and beaten down, has had its turn, and the new piece is coming out. You're only here for another day, it tells her. Why don't you do what he said and stop thinking about all this? He's got a plan, he knows what he's doing. You can trust him. Let him lead this. It's only one more day, what's the harm? Stop thinking. Stop. Stop. The new part of her, nearly the new Ji Hyo now, gets more and more insistent. You can do this for one more day. Just stop thinking. Just go with what you feel. You can follow three simple rules, right? You're already sitting here, waiting for him to return. That's one third done. For just 24 more hours, all you have to do is do what he says and not think about it. You can do that, it urges her. Think of this as a chance you won't get again. It's almost over. You owe it to yourself to see where he's going with this. You owe it to yourself to let him show you.

The logical bit makes one last stab at it. No. No, think about this. Stay in the apartment, sure. Do what he says, sure, if it's reasonable. But do  _not_  stop thinking it through. Do not stop trying to stay one step ahead. Do  _not_  stop trying to figure out what he's doing. What if he's planning to have sex with you and gloat? What if he's trying to make you fall in love with him and  _leave you_  right after, having proven his point? 

She shakes her head quickly, trying to clear that thought. Jong Kook would never. He'd never manipulate her emotions just to laugh at her, to prove a point, to win. If he's got a goal in mind, she's certain it's in her best interests. He said so the other day. He said he's the one with her best interests in mind. 

New Ji Hyo triumphantly stomps logical Ji Hyo back into the corner of her mind.

It's just another 24 hours, she tells herself, sealing the protests into the back of her mind as she skips off to the kitchen for her snack.


	11. Thursday Night - Finally

After eating her snack, Ji Hyo crawls into her tent to read. She finishes the two comics she had started the day before, then sticks her head out.

"Jong Kook?," she calls hopefully, thinking maybe he slipped in without her noticing, but there's no answer.

She sighs and comes the rest of the way out of the fort. She wanders down the hall of the apartment aimlessly and lets herself into the room with the big bed. Reflexively, she reaches over to the wall next to the door to hit the lights, and to her surprise, a lamp on the bedside table comes on.

"Huh?" She looks around. But there  _definitely_  weren't any lights in here last night, she puzzles. She can feel a slight stirring of that squashed down part of her, but cheerfully ignores it. "Weird," she says, and shrugs. She makes her way over to the vanity and sits down, idly braiding her hair, one ear cocked toward the door. When she's done, Jong Kook still hasn't arrived.

"Ugh! He's been gone  _forever_ ," she whines to herself and flails impatiently.

She leaves her room and tiptoes down the hall, pushing open the door to his. The bed is neatly made and the pillow and blanket she used the night before are folded on the bench, with her tiger on top. She walks the perimeter of the room, opening the closet and lightly trailing her fingers over the array of clothes, hats, and shoes. Stepping into the bathroom, she amuses herself for a few minutes by unscrewing the tops of all the colognes and sniffing them, feeling a warm glow when she comes across one she recognizes the most. She sighs happily, then wanders back into the bedroom. She looks around for a clock or a watch, but doesn't see any.

On a whim, she grabs up her tiger and pulls it close as she continues her stroll around the room, then clambers up into Jong Kook's bed. She nestles into the pillows, noting how they smell like Jong Kook. She pulls her stuffed tiger close and closes her eyes, vowing just to lay there for a moment or two.

* * *

Ji Hyo awakes curled on her side near the edge of the bed. She stretches and slowly opens her eyes, only to find herself nose to nose with Jong Kook.

"Oh!," she yelps and jumps, and he flings an arm around her to keep her from flying off the edge of the bed. He pulls her close against his chest, laughing.

"Someone's been sleeping in my bed," he says jokingly, and she blushes, mumbling into his chest.

"What's that?," he asks, loosening his grip so she can pull her face back.

"Sorry," she repeats. "But you were gone  _forever_!" She flails a fist against his chest and he catches it in his hand.

"Sorry, Ji Hyo. Sorry. I got caught up and lost track of time." He pulls her head to his chest again and murmurs into her hair. "Will you forgive me?"

She knows he's joking around but that knowledge does nothing to stop that chill from dancing up and down her spine again. She nods.

"Good," he says back, letting her loose again. "Are you hungry? Would you like to eat dinner?"

She leans her face back into his chest. He'd apparently showered before waking her up and he smells fresh and clean and like the cologne she'd recognized in the bathroom.

"Can we just stay here for a minute?," she asks. Her mind is whirling, but not about their proximity or her sudden desire to wiggle herself right into his chest and never come out. No, instead, the niggling worry at the back of her mind is about how fast tomorrow is going to come. It's already dinner time on Thursday. It's almost over.

"Oh, uh," Jong Kook is taken aback. "Sure. Of course. As long as you want." He wraps his hand around the back of her head, tucking her in against his chest. They lay there like that, silently, for a long time. Jong Kook leaves Ji Hyo to her thoughts. Eventually, though, his stomach growls.

"All right, Ji Hyo," he says laughingly. "I'm sorry, but I had a long workout today. I need to eat." He peels her reluctant form off of him and rolls himself out of the bed over her, stopping briefly to touch their noses together. She stares into his eyes unblinking and once again, he's taken aback, startled. Somehow, she's thrown him off his game.

He steps out of the bed and she sits up, lifting her arms to be lifted out. He grins and obliges her, giving a small "oof" when she refuses to set her feet on the ground.

"Oh, it's spider monkey time again, is it?," he asks, and lugs her to the kitchen. He shakes her loose next to the counter. "Would you like to help me put together dinner?"

"Yes," she agrees. "I'll help."

"Just a second."

He trots over to the pantry and gets the cushioned block, setting it on the floor in front of the counter.

"Jong Kook," she laughs. "I can reach the counter."

He lifts her to stand on the block. "Yes, but now we're right next to each other." He turns his face to hers to demonstrate, resting his forehead on hers. His smile is friendly but his eyes are observant, watching for her reaction. Instead of pulling back like he expected, she smiles in return.

"Oh, you're right. That's convenient. What can I do?"

He frowns briefly and hides it before she notices. "Well, um," he says, turning to the fridge to regain his composure. "Let me grab a few things."

Within a couple of moments, he's got the makings of grilled chicken and salad laid out in front of them, and they get to work. He gives her simple tasks, like tearing the lettuce and mixing up a light vinegrette dressing, while he handles all the cutting and the heat. It's not long before they've put themselves together a respectable meal, and Ji Hyo hops down so he can relocate the block to her chair. Once in place, she thanks him for the meal and digs in.

He leans back in his chair, barely eating although his stomach is roaring for food. He evaluates her carefully, sensing a shift in her attitude toward him. There's no moment of hesitation when he asks her to do something, no brief pause as the wheels turn in her mind trying to figure out what his angle is. There's no sign that she's making a conscious decision whether or not to do as he asks, she's just doing it. And the way she leaned in close while they cooked together, reached across him, and touched his arm from time to time. Friendly, yes, and they've always been friendly. But it just feels different somehow.

While he watches her, she chats and eats, not really noticing his minimal participation. She tells him stories and looks up from her plate now and then to smile at him, and he reflexively smiles back. A deep satisfaction starts to bloom inside of him, though he hesitates to let it get out of control just yet.

When they're done, she pulls the same move as the night before, nudging her plates forward just slightly, trying to draw his attention to them. He picks them up without a word and drops them into the sink.

"I'll wash these later," he says, and lifts her down.

"I can do them now," she offers helpfully.

"No, you don't need to do that. I'll wash them when you're in bed."

"All right..." she says hesitantly and looks around the kitchen. "Um... I can put the food away."

"I'll take care of it," he says, "but I appreciate the offer. You go on into the living room and we'll watch a movie, okay?"

She sighs. "All right." She drags herself slowly from the room, once again taking large steps as she passes him, brushing against him on her way. He manages to muffle a laugh until she leaves.

When he joins her in the living room a few minutes later, he finds her sitting on her cushion at the coffee table, back straight, watching the doorway. She smiles when he enters and he nods to her, sitting down on the couch. She deflates slightly. As he fiddles with the remote to select a movie, she subtly inches her cushion closer and closer until she's pressed against his leg.

"Let's watch My Sassy Girl," he says. "I haven't seen it in a while."

"Oh, I love that one," Ji Hyo enthuses, and lays the side of her head against his knee. His fingers twitch and he wants to run them through her hair, but he tells himself to hold back. Just a little longer.

As the movie goes on, he barely pays attention, using the opportunity of her faced turned to the screen to watch her instead of the film. He notes every laugh and smile, the delight she's taking in the now-classic film. Her body is completely relaxed against his leg, and at one point, she wraps her arms around his calf at a particularly adorable part of the movie.

Finally, about halfway through, he gives in to himself. "Ji Hyo, come sit up here with me."

She looks up at him in shock, and he looks back. He doesn't repeat himself, just urges himself to keep the same steady eye contact. It's barely a second before she's scrambling up next to him. Instead of sitting stiffly at his side, as he expected, she immediately curls up against him, ducking her head low so he can sling an arm around her shoulders. She rests her head on his chest, keeping her eyes on the screen. He directs his there, as well.

He's hyper-aware of all the movements she makes as the movie winds to a close. She trails a hand over his chest, hesitantly at first, and then with more confidence as he doesn't move to stop her. She occasionally turns her face up to press into the side of his neck, and he barely breathes, willing his body to maintain control, to show her no reaction. He has to close his eyes and count to fifty as her breath tickles his neck, concentrating on not tightening his arm, not flipping her over onto her back on the couch. When she lays her legs over his, he flops his head back onto the back of the couch, giving up on watching the movie all together. When it finally ends, he stifles a sigh of relief.

Ji Hyo stretches and he does, too, using it as an excuse to get out from under her. 

"Okay," he says. "Bath time."

She hops up instantly and follows him closely down the hall, practically stuck to his side, bumping in to him the whole way down the hall. She enters the bathroom with him, and waits by his side while he draws the water.

"Bubbles?," he asks.

"Yes, please," she says, beaming at him. "Will you please tie my hair?"

He nods and reaches for the elastics. She's not giving him a chance to tell her what he's going to do, but rather, is asking for what she wants directly, just like he requested. That satisfied feeling grows even more and he struggles to keep it in check, breaking two more hair ties as his concentration was elsewhere.

"You're like the Hulk, Jong Kook," Ji Hyo teases him. He wraps his arms around her from behind and lifts her from the ground with a mock roar, and she laughs.

"Turn around so I can get in," she says.

"I'll just wait out --"

"No...," she says hesitantly. "Can you stay here with me?"

"Oh. Yes, sure, of course I can." He curses internally. He said if she asked for what she wanted, he'd always do his best to give it to her. Unfortunately for him, right now sticking to that promise means staying in a small room with a naked Ji Hyo. He turns his back and runs his hands over his face. Just one more night, he coaches himself. You can do this for just one more night. It's almost over. He holds his breath as he hears the muffled sound of the t-shirt hitting the floor, then the soft splashing of Ji Hyo entering the water.

"I'm decent now!," she calls, and he turns back around to see her smiling at him from bubble mountain. He pulls over the stool from the vanity and sits beside the tub.

"Do you need help with something?," he asks.

"Well, no," she says with a frown. "But..."

"But... ?"

She lowers her face, concealing it slightly behind a mound of bubbles. "But... you were gone all day." There's a bit of a petulant tone to her voice.

"Aw, did you miss me?," he says teasingly.

"Yes," she responds simply, and he's once again shocked into silence. He sits quietly by the tub as she soaks, watching the small amount of stress left in her after these few days drain away. Her eyes are closed, and he takes the time to examine her face as much as he wants. He knows he's almost there. He knows the end is in sight. Whether he can accomplish his goals by tomorrow, well, that's yet to be seen, but  _something_  is happening, at least. Her hand snakes out of the tub and he takes it in his own. A small smile curls her lips and her eyes stay closed.

When she's almost a prune, Jong Kook indicates that it's time for her to get out. Really, the bubbles are just starting to die away and more and more of her bare flesh is being revealed and he figures it's for the best he get her out and dressed as soon as possible. He stands and holds open a large towel, turning his face away as she steps out of the tub. Instead of taking it from him, she allows him to wrap it around her, tucking the ends in close to her skin. He bites the inside of his cheek as he does so, then quickly wraps her in the robe right over the towel.

"I'm sorry, Ji Hyo," he says seriously, and she looks up with concern. "I'm just not ready to try the towel turban for you again."

She laughs, almost sounding relieved, and grabs up a small towel for her hair, making quick work of twisting the damp locks up on top of her head, squeezing out as much water as possible. He stands by the counter as she washes her face and brushes her teeth. Any time he tries to take a step out of her personal bubble of space, her eyes dart up to him with concern and he stops.

They exit back out to her bedroom, and she immediately sits on the stool in front of the vanity. Without speaking, he undoes the towel and starts to brush her hair with long, slow strokes. She closes her eyes and he watches her in the mirror, wondering what the next day will bring, trying not to be too concerned about it. Mostly convinced he'll succeed, but feeling more uncertain now than he had in previous days. Why is she being so docile? Yes, he wants her to do what he says, but he'd expected more along the lines of the first few days of her visit - eventually listening, but with a little spark of defiance behind it as she tried to work out his game. Now, tonight, she seems to be putting her all into doing what he asks, even anticipating what he might want and trying to provide it. Instead of attempting to stay a step ahead of him mentally, she's trying to stay a step ahead of giving him what he wants.

Suddenly, she tips her head back to look up at him, her eyes open. He stares back down at her. She rests the top of her head against his chest, then reaches her arms up and behind to wrap around him. He freezes, watching her, then leans his face close to her own, pressing their cheeks together. She shifts slightly but doesn't let go of him. He rubs his face against her own, wondering what she's angling for and half-wishing she'd stop, his control over himself clenched tight in his stomach.

He stands abruptly and backs away after setting the hairbrush back down on the vanity. She looks at him, her eyes a mixture of confusion and frustration.

"Clothes are on the bed," he says quickly. "If you want to stay in my room again, you can. Just come out when you're dressed or call me and I'll come and tuck you in." He leaves as fast as he can, pulling the door shut behind him and collapsing against the wall. He forces himself to recite all of Turbo's albums' names and tracklists under his breath, willing himself back under control. He half-wishes she'll stay in her own room tonight and not torture him further. As much as he wants to drag her into his room and throw her on the bed right now, that won't get him anywhere. It would ruin everything he's worked so hard for so far. Just a little longer, just a little longer, he coaches himself again.

Still he wonders, what is she up to? Why is she suddenly so affectionate? Is she trying to beat him at his own game? Trying to make him want to have sex with her? That can't be it. He already bluntly told her he does. Is she trying to get him to have sex with her to end the game? That can't be it, either. He told her that's not his goal, and that it wouldn't end if she had sex with him. Though he admits he sure as shit wouldn't mind right now if she did. Does she finally just  _want_  to have sex with him? That could be it, and that would be nice, he tells himself, but it's not enough. Not quite there yet. 

He's just calmed himself down when the door beside him creaks open.

"I'll sleep on the bench in your room tonight, if that's okay," she says shyly, tugging the t-shirt to cover more of her thighs.

"Of course," he agrees, and leads her to his room. "Let me get you settled in. I need to finish up in the kitchen."

"Can you lay with me for a few minutes before you go?," she asks, her eyes downcast.

He swallows hard. Fuck. Ok. I can do this, he instructs himself. "Of course," he says, hoping she doesn't notice the strangled tone of his voice.

He sits down on his bed and pulls her up in it as well when she approaches. Laying on his back, he tucks her into the crook of his arm and lets her lay her head on his chest. He clenches his teeth as she sleepily trails her fingers over it. She slings a bare leg over his and an arm around his waist and he slowly lets his breath out through his teeth, staring up at the ceiling. He wills himself not to move. She turns her face up and presses it into his neck, her soft breaths tickling the skin there. He determinedly starts to count to a million, his arm loose around her shoulder.

She pushes herself up with a hand on his chest, bringing her face to his and staring into his eyes. She touches their noses together and he holds his breath. She leans forward and kisses him on the cheek, and he can't help smiling at her. She tilts her head, looking down at him with a mixture of confusion and determination. She slides her leg up and down his as she angles herself over his body, her damp hair tickling his cheek. She bites her lip and he briefly clenches his eyes shut. She takes the opportunity to press a quick kiss on his lips, pulling back again like lightning. He opens his eyes in shock to find her own wide eyes staring back at him, as if in shock herself. She waits for him to say something, but he doesn't, at a loss for words.

She sighs so softly he almost misses it and lays her head back down on his chest. He takes a deep breath, then another, her head rising with his chest. Before he can stop himself, he rests a hand on the curve of her cotton-covered waist. This is fine, he tells himself. I can do this much. This is fine. He unconsciously slides his hand down over her hip and it freezes on her upper thigh. He slides it back up again, and then down. Ji Hyo stiffens and a light bulb practically explodes in his mind.

How could he have been so  _stupid_? He's unable to stop the grin spreading across his face. All her closeness and nudity and rubbing on him have turned him into an _idiot_. How did he miss this?

He gently rolls her onto her side and braces himself facing her, sliding his hand down her top thigh again and back up, under the t-shirt this time. Her eyes grow wary, never leaving his as she watches him, her body tense.

His eyes narrow as he looks at her, running his hand over the bare skin he finds under the t-shirt.

"Good," he says quietly, and she gives an involuntary gasp, eyes widening before her face crumbles and she hides it in his chest. 

He laughs softly and clutches her head to his chest with his hand. "Oh, Ji Hyo, is that what you were waiting for?"

He strokes her hair as she collapses her body into his, her shoulders heaving. He finally lets the feeling of satisfaction and triumph explode through him, neither of them noticing as the last bits of old Ji Hyo blow away.


	12. Thursday Night - We Can't Do This

Jong Kook holds Ji Hyo close until her shoulders stop shaking, until her sniffles quiet, and her body goes limp. He lays with her long after she's fallen asleep, lost in thought, her body clutched close to his.

Finally.  _Finally_. He has to stop himself from squeezing her too tight and clenches his jaw in victory. It's been years - literal _years_  - that he's been waiting to get Ji Hyo into his life, into his apartment, into his bed, and now he has her. Of course, he  _had_  her the first day, but now he's nearly certain he has her for keeps. There's just the tricky last day to navigate, one last step in the plan he's gone over and over and over in his mind, almost every day as long as he's known her.

Of course, at first, he just thought she was beautiful and sexy, like he told her. Of course he wanted to sleep with her, who didn't? Hell, Suk Jin would kill for a chance to sleep with her. There's never been any doubt that Jong Kook would jump at the chance, if it had just presented itself. But it never did. It didn't take long for him to realize his smile and gracious charm weren't going to work on Ji Hyo. She was kind, friendly, and flat out uninterested. He resolved himself to admire her from afar, maybe entertain a few less chaste thoughts about her when he was alone at night.

He figured she was interested in someone else, or maybe even gay. She didn't date anyone for long, and the only time she did, it was the owner of her company. It was then that he started to see what was really going on with Ji Hyo, and the plan began to form. 

She had never seemed entirely happy with that relationship, though her boyfriend sure had. Watching him, watching her, and watching them together allowed Jong Kook to put together the pieces of  _why_  Ji Hyo had never really been interested in him, especially after that relationship ended. Ji Hyo didn't make a habit of dating or sleeping around, but guys talk, and a few assholes he knew had bragged a bit when drunk about their own encounters with Ji Hyo. She was discreet, as were they, but still. Guys talk. Clenching his fists under the table so as not to punch an asshole out here and there, he had listened to their tales and filed away all the information, then waited for his moment. It came a little more crudely than he was hoping, with a challenge about getting her to want to fuck him, but when he saw the opening, he had to go for it.

Getting her into his house was the first step. He'd been preparing for this for a long time, single-mindedly determined that it  _would_  happen at some point. Once he had her, he needed to get her to stay. Easy. Anyone - anyone at  _all_ \- could see that Ji Hyo needed a break. Setting up a situation where she got to rest, relax, and not think about a thing would be almost unbearably appealing to her, he figured, and he was right. After that, it was just a matter of showing her the truth.

He knows Ji Hyo thinks he's been trying to show her some other side of himself, something that she might find appealing enough for sex. He knows she chose Gary over him because Gary has an edge of a sort, something Ji Hyo feels he's missing. It's not, of course, that she _wants_  to be treated poorly, without respect. No, it's more than she craves and seeks out an opportunity to please, to give herself to someone demanding, to be given an opportunity to show she can do well. She thinks that to find that, she needs a certain type of guy. A guy who cares little for her personally other than what she can do for him, and submitting herself to someone stronger, forceful, and demanding is what fills the empty ache inside of her when she can't stand it anymore. She can't picture him in that role, and he doesn't blame her, because he's definitely not that kind of guy. Oh yes, he's going to show her another side of himself, but the truth is, first he's got to show her something about herself. 

She's a pleaser, and she doesn't even seem to know it. She dated her company manager because it made him happy. She accepts all these offers, even the garbage ones, because she hates to disappoint. She works herself into the ground, meeting obligation after obligation, to avoid the crushing feeling of not gaining the approval of those she works with.

And oh, at this point, he knows it's crushing. After the first day or so of making his expectations clear, Jong Kook had carefully avoided offering any praise for following his directions. He feels terrible about it, but it was so hard not to laugh at her confusion. Her bewildered eyes, her constant clutching of her stomach, the wheels turning in her mind as she tries to figure out what's missing. The way she gradually totally flipped over to following his directions without question. And this, this last 24 hours or so. He laughs softly under his breath then cuts it off, checking to make sure he didn't wake her. If he hadn't been so wrapped up in his own hormones, he would have noticed. Her desire for his company, clinging to him, keeping close and trying to anticipate what he might want so she could provide it promptly. She wasn't trying to seduce him. She was trying to regain the approval she thought she'd lost, and he doesn't even know if she realizes it herself. When he'd slid has hand over her hip, he first thought he was halucinating, tricking himself into feeling something he'd wanted for so long. So he did it again, and again, and when he'd slid his hand under her shirt, he'd found bare skin. In what was probably a last ditch effort for her, one that took guts he  _knew_  she possessed but didn't even begin to hope she'd use with him yet, she'd left her panties behind on the shelf.

He couldn't help himself then. "Good," he'd said, finally.

His heart almost broke when she collapsed against him, her body trembling in relief. He knows the past few days have been hard for her, confusing. He knows she must be blocking out some part of her mind, the part that wants to tell her to get up, to run, to not look at her friend this way. But he also knows he's deliberately unlocked a new part, one she'd been holding back for too long. One that had been leaking out into her whole life, making her stretch herself too thin in the quest to please everyone. He'd unlocked it, and turned it on himself. 

He knows the next 24 hours or so will be tricky. He can't anticipate how she's going to behave when she wakes up, and he can only hope that his plan will continue to work as it has so far. In the best case, she's his now. In the worst case, she walks out the door and never speaks to him again. His heart clenches at the thought and he pulls her too close, too tight. She stirs and opens her eyes.

"Go back to sleep," he whispers.

Her eyes widen the rest of the way, realizing where she is.

"Oh!," she exclaims, sleepy but alarmed. "The bench! I'll go down --"

He holds her tighter. "No, stay here." He knows he should let her move out of his bed, if only to keep his promise about not throwing himself on top of her, but he can't make himself do it. He's so close, and he still might lose. He wants to hold on to this one more night.

He half expects her to object, but she doesn't. Instead, she cuddles closer and flings a leg over his. She's quiet and he thinks she's drifted right back to sleep, but freezes as he feels her lips on his neck.

"Ji Hyo," he says warningly.

She pulls even closer, an arm wrapped around his torso, and touches her lips to the hollow behind his ear. He clenches his eyes shut and takes a deep breath, then shifts his arm gently to move her away. She clings even harder, refusing to be dislodged, placing soft kisses along his jawline.

He grabs her by both shoulders and flips her onto her back, bracing himself over her. She stares up into his eyes, her own a mix of determination and something else he can't place in the darkened room. As he studies her, she flings her arms around his neck and pulls herself up, pressing her lips to his. Surprised, he collapses down to his elbows, their chests pressed tightly together. Though his mind is yelling at him to stop, to remember the plan, to take this step by step, he can't help kissing her back. He lifts a hand to her jaw, angling her face slightly and sealing their lips together more firmly. He swipes the tip of his tongue across the seam of her lips, and she parts them eagerly, allowing him to deepen the kiss.

By the time he pulls back, his head is spinning. He looks down at Ji Hyo, who is flushed and panting. She tries to pull him down to her again, but this time he holds back.

"Ji Hyo," he says, attempting to conceal the fact that he's also out of breath. "We're not doing this."

He holds back a wince at the stricken look on her face.

"But..." she whispers. "But I want to."

He shakes his head, not quite trusting himself to speak yet, afraid he'll just blurt everything out and immediately fling her t-shirt across the room. That fucking t-shirt. What an idiot move that had been. Watching her walk around in just his shirt, riding up her thighs, bunching around her waist as she crawled in and out of the little cave he'd built for her, all of it had been pure torture. And now it's the only thing separating his bare chest from hers.

"I thought that this is what you wanted, though." Her tone is plaintive and he struggles to maintain a neutral expression, even as his heart cracks for her. Almost there, he chants to himself. Almost there, almost there, almost there. Don't fuck this up now.

"Isn't it?," she continues. "Didn't you want me to want to have sex with you? I do want to, and now you don't want to?" Anger and incredulity are creeping into her tone at the edges.

He drops his head to her chest with a groan. "Oh my god, Ji Hyo, you have no _idea_  how much I want to."

She does have some idea, as it's pressing up against her stomach.

"But we're not doing this," he finishes.

"Why not?," she demands, pushing herself up on her elbows and dislodging him.

"I'm not having sex with you because you think that's what  _I_  want."

"Was this whole thing a joke to you? You get me to want to fuck you and then laugh at dumb, foolish Ji Hyo?" Her face is flaming with rage and, he notes, shame. "Did you plan this to embarrass me because I said I didn't want to have sex with --"

He cuts her off by slamming his mouth onto hers again, driving her back into the pillows. No, no, no, his mind plays on repeat, but he ignores it. I can do this much, he thinks. I can do this much and nothing else. He tears his mouth from hers.

"Put your arms above your head," he says. "Hold on to the bedframe."

She stares at him, unblinking, her eyes glassy.

"Ji Hyo," he says warningly, and she shakily obeys.

He moves himself over her again, bracing himself with a hand on either side of her. He returns the treatment she gave him earlier, fastening his lips to her neck. He places little kisses up and down the pale column, noting which places make her sigh and arch under him. When he bites lightly on the spot where her neck meets her shoulder, she gasps and he smiles into her skin. She has her head tipped back on the pillow as far as it will go, giving him full access to her throat. He hums approvingly and angles himself to the side, using one hand to push her t-shirt up to her chin. She flinches and pulls her own hand down to grasp the hem. He catches her hand and firmly replaces it on the headboard.

"Don't test me, Ji Hyo," he warns. He knows his tone might startle her into following his orders, and for the moment, that's fine by him. Any movement by her, any stray touch, and he fears he'll completely lose the plot.

Once she's uncovered, he sits up on his knees, staring down at her. After a moment, she starts to squirm under the extended examination, a pretty pink flush crossing her chest and up her neck. He touches it lightly with one finger, admiring the color over her pale skin, then runs both hands down her sides, over her ribcage and down to her hips. His touch is solid, unhesitant. He grasps her hips in his hands and lifts them bracing them on his knee. Using one hand, he grabs his pillow and uses it to replace his leg, angling her hips upward. She moves to pull her knees together and he nudges them apart with his own, giving her a steely look. She swallows hard and he can see her briefly war with herself before that glazed look comes back into her eyes and her knees fall loosely apart.

"Good," he says, stroking a hand down her stomach, and watches with pleasure as she relaxes into the pillows at his voice. He places himself between her thighs on his knees, taking the opportunity offered by her closed eyes to painfully adjust the contents of his shorts with a wince. He presses his lips to her neck again and she instantly arches, pressing her breasts into his bare chest. He divides his focus between Ji Hyo and counting to a million once again, jaw clenched tightly. He can see her biceps flexing and releasing as she tightens and loosens her grip on the headboard. He slides lower down her body, dropping kisses down her sternum. She gasps as he takes one breast in his hand. He closes his eyes as the pleasure surges through him, nearly bursting with the sensation of finally having her here after so long. 

"Jong Kook, let me --"

"Shh," he silences her before closing his mouth over one of her nipples. She lets out a sharp gasp as he teases it with his teeth, and he feels her hands in his hair. He instantly pulls away, fixing his eyes on her in the dark, unmoving until she slowly raises her arms again.

"Good girl," he praises her, nuzzling her neck. She moans, her head going cloudy at the word and his nearness. He resumes his work, kissing his way across the chest to her other breast, paying it the same lavish attention as the first. Her breath is coming in little gasps now, and the sound shoots straight to his cock, tightening it painfully. He steels himself and continues, swirling his tongue over her stomach, dipping into her navel, as he moves lower and lower. Her body stiffens as she realizes his goal, and he places a soothing hand on her stomach, pressing down gently to hold her in place.

Nudging her thighs farther apart with his shoulders, he keeps that light pressure on her stomach, calming her with the contact, as he slowly licks the seam where her left leg meets her hip. She squirms and gasps, her lips clenched tightly closed to keep sounds from escaping. He grins to himself, accepting the personal challenge, and moves to the other side, repeating the same, slow motion. Moving to her center, he presses a kiss against the dampened lips before extending just the tip of his tongue to lick slowly from top to bottom. A strangled noise escapes her and his grin widens.

"Keep your hands where they are, Ji Hyo," he warns one last time before removing his hand from her stomach and using both hands to part the lips of her sex. He licks again, slowly and broadly this time, pressing the flat of his tongue from top to bottom, and she shrieks through clenched teeth.

"What do you want, Ji Hyo?," he asks her, his breath floating across her most sensitive parts. 

She squirms and arches her hips toward his mouth, but he holds her firmly in place. He waits.

"Please," she gasps.

"Please what?," he says patiently, though inside he's anything but patient.

"Please, Jong Kook," she gasps again.

"You need to ask me for what you want, baby girl, and I'll always do my best to give it to you," he reminds her. He lifts his eyes and watches the flush across her chest deepen and color her face.

"Please," she finally whispers. "Please, lick me."

He extends his tongue, flicking it over her clit several times and she moans quietly. 

"Like that?," he asks. "Is that what you want?"

"Please," she says on a moan. "More."

"Of course," he replies, delighting in the satisfaction spreading through his chest, even as other parts of him are screaming for attention. He leans closer, wrapping his arms around her thighs from underneath to hold them apart, and latches his mouth onto her clit, sucking it gently. Her hips slam upward, pressing his mouth closer to where she wants the contact most.

He gives her what she wants without hesitation, swirling his tongue around her clit several times before sucking more strongly, increasing his pace and intensity as her gasps and moans direct him. He grazes it with his teeth and is rewarded with a particularly shrill cry, still through clenched lips. Determined, he rubs his tongue back and forth, setting up a quick, intense rhythym. She moves her hips in time, her breath coming faster and faster, and he feels her thighs tense around his shoulders.

He can hear her chanting something under her breath, the words garbled and tight. The more he strokes her with her tongue, the more she thrashes under the contact. Sensing she's close to the edge, he unwinds one of her arms from her thigh. He presses his mouth to her even more tightly, keying her up to a fever pitch. As he feels her strain under his mouth, her whole body arched, he slams one finger inside her slick passage and immediately feels her clench around it. Finally, she loses control and throws her head back on a long scream, her body trembling. He licks her gently through the aftershocks, not pulling away until she's completely limp, her body covered in a light sheen of sweat.

He pulls himself up beside her and grabs the sheet, dragging the light layer over top of her before pulling her in to his chest. After a moment, she finally stirs and looks up at him with wide eyes. He smiles down at her and strokes her sweat-dampened hair from her forehead. She takes a deep breath, seeming to summon energy from somewhere, though he knows she's completely wiped out and feels no small amount of pride from that fact. She wiggles a hand between them, heading for the waistband of his shorts. He barely catches her by the wrist in time, her fingers just grazing his cock before he pulls her hand away, clenching his teeth to fight off the shudder the contact caused.

"But what about -- "

"Don't worry about that, Ji Hyo."

She looks shocked. "But Jong Kook --"

"I said not to worry about it."

She tries to shake her hand loose from his, but it's clear she's exhausted and he turns onto his back, pillowing her head on his chest. He's careful to keep a loose grip on her wrist as he does so, knowing that even the slightest touch and he wouldn't be able to hold himself back. Just one more day, just one more day, he tells himself.

"Jong Kook, just let me --"

"Ji Hyo, I said no." He uses the flat, firm tone he knows triggers something in her, something that causes her to listen without question. "It's time for you to sleep now."

She opens her mouth to protest but he places a warning finger on her lips. When she closes them, he nods approvingly, smiling at her, and her eyes flutter shut on a sigh. He strokes her hair as she quickly drops off to sleep.

When she's almost there, almost completely dead to the world, she barely registers him saying quietly, "Sometimes, Ji Hyo, it's all right to let someone just take care of you."


	13. Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Friday morning, Ji Hyo opens her eyes to find Jong Kook propped up on one elbow, looking down at her. She's face to face with his bare chest, and sleepily snuggles her face into with with a pleased hum before freezing in place.

"Oh god," she mumbles. "Oh god oh god oh god." Images of the night before flash across her mind. She's instantly bright red all over and brings her hands up to cover her face. She can feel the rumble through Jong Kook's chest as he laughs at her.

"Good morning, baby girl," he says, amusement tinging his voice.

She just groans in response.

He pries her face loose from his chest with one hand on each of her cheeks. She squeezes her eyes shut to avoid looking at him and he just laughs more, then drops a kiss on her forehead and rolls out of bed.

"You slept in," he says. "Breakfast is already ready. Up you go." He reaches into the bed and grabs her by the ankles, dragging her to the edge. She shrieks as her t-shirt rides up, exposing her nakedness underneath. She scrambles to grab the hem and pull it back down and Jong Kook drops her ankles and reaches out to grab her wrists instead. He pins them to the bed, leaning over her.

"Uh uh, none of that," he chides, and makes a show of deliberately looking her up and down as her face burns. When he's satisfied, he plants another, more lingering kiss on her forehead, pulls the shirt down, and sits her up with a tug on her wrist. She immediately hides her face in her hands.

"Ji Hyo, what do you even have to hide now?," he says teasingly and she wails into her hands. He laughs and ruffles the hair on the top of her head. "Let's go eat." Instead of lifting her and setting her on the ground, he swings her into his arms and cradles her, carrying her to the kitchen close to his chest. She's too startled to say anything, and before she knows it, he's plopped her down on her cushioned block at the table.

She continues to hid her face in her hands as he putters around the kitchen, setting breakfast in front of their two seats. It's not until he sits down across from her and waits, silently, that she peeks out from between her fingers. Seeing him smirking at her, her temper immediately flashes and she drops her hands with a defiant attitude, snatching up her spoon and starting to eat with jerky, annoyed motions. He just laughs under his breath and starts in on his own food.

They eat in silence for several minutes, and Jong Kook can see Ji Hyo attempt to say something several times. She always stops herself, though, right before the words come out. Finally, he loses his patience.

"What's up, Ji Hyo?," he asks her, making sure to keep his voice neutral. It's important to him that she not know how stressed he is about today, how carefully he intends to tread to make sure his plan comes together perfectly in the end.

"Umm...," she hedges.

"Ji Hyo," he says warningly, a tone she's becoming familiar with.

"What now?," she blurts out. Now that she's talking, she can't stop herself. "What happens now? I guess you won, right? So I go home? I mean, I told you I wanted to have sex with you, so that's it, right?" Her face is bright pink. "Are you happy? Even though it was just a stupid game?" She stabs at her plate as she talks, not looking at him.

"We're not done yet, baby girl," he says simply and her head jerks up.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," he says nonchalantly, "you got here on Monday morning and the deal was five days. I won't make you stay til tomorrow morning, but you should at least finish out today, don't you think?"

"But... why?" She's genuinely confused, setting her utensils down.

"I said I had to show you something. I'm only halfway finished."

"Are you ever going to tell me what you're trying to show me?" She's so frustrated, her voice is strangled. This week has gone  _nothing_  like she expected it would. She certainly didn't intend for him to  _ever_  see her naked, let alone do what she allowed him to do the night before. She fights the urge to hide her face in her hands again, forcing herself to hold eye contact with him.

"Consider it a personal challenge I've given to myself that you are able to figure it out on your own," he says cryptically. 

She throws her head back and shrieks at the ceiling before looking toward him again.

"So then what? What happens today?" She reaches for her water cup and pulls her hand back in surprise. "Jong Kook, why is there a lid on my cup? We're at the table."

"So you don't spill, baby girl."

"Jong Kook! I'm an adult and -- why do you keep calling me that?"

He shrugs and smiles at her in a way that absolutely infuriates her and she angrily tries to pry the lid off the cup, but it's on much too tightly.

"Do you need help?," he asks her blandly, and she thrusts the hand holding the cup out toward him.

"Take this off," she demands.

"No," he replies.

"Take it off!," she insists again.

"I won't do that," he says with that infuriating smile still in place.

" _Why_?," she wails.

"Because that is the cup you drink from in my house. That is the chair you sit in to eat in my house. You know already that while you're here, you're expected to follow my rules for my house." He stands and circles around the table to her.

"And that includes letting you call me baby girl?," she asks snarkily, taking a sip from her lidded cup with disgust because she's thirsty and obviously isn't going to gain any ground on this point.

"That's right, baby girl," he says, leaning down to slide his arms around her and pull her into his chest.

For some reason, most of the fire dies out of Ji Hyo at the contact and she finds herself leaning in to him.

"Are there other rules I don't know yet or just those three?," she asks curiously.

"The only rule you have to worry about now is that I'm in charge," he says, scooping her up in his arms again.

"Always so bossy," she complains, though lightheartedly, since being cuddled so close to him causes that pleasant, muzzy feeling to slip down over her, cocooning her in relaxed comfort.

"I am, aren't I?," he agrees on a chuckle, carrying her to the bathroom in her bedroom. "Shower time," he says, setting her on her feet on the floor. He leans into the glass stall to start the water, then sits down on the stool at the bathroom vanity.

"Umm...," Ji Hyo says hesitantly. "Aren't you going to leave?"

"No," he says placidly.

"But --"

"Take your clothes off, Ji Hyo."

She stares at him, jaw dropped in shock, unmoving.

"You should know I don't like to say things twice, Ji Hyo."

She swallows hard and grabs the hem of her t-shirt. It's fine, she reasons with herself. It's nothing he hasn't seen, anyway. She pulls the shirt over her head and lets it drop to the ground. She tries to cover her private areas with her hands and he shakes his head at her.

"I already told you, none of that, baby girl. And that's twice I've had to tell you now."

She immediately drops her hands. She feels heat prickle over her entire body as his gaze rakes her up and down.

After a moment, he says, "You can get in the shower now."

She gratefully pulls open the door of the stall and gets in. There's no real shelter there, though. The shower is completely enclosed in glass on all three sides, with a wide enough gap between the top and the ceiling that steam doesn't accumulate to fog the view. Jong Kook leans back with his elbows on the vanity behind him, legs crossed at the ankles in front of him, watching her. She fights the urge to turn her back to him, tilting her chin in the air with a bravery she doesn't actually feel as she lets the hot water run over her already overheated skin.

She runs her hands over her face to push her wet hair away, doing her best to tune out Jong Kook's presence, though if she's honest with herself, it's not bothering her too much. At first, she was shocked by his behavior, by his tone, by his overall commanding attitude. She stands trembling in the shower, incredibly aware of his eyes on her, of his weird power to get her to ignore the rational part of herself when he uses certain words, or a certain tone of voice. 

When she stops to think about it, though, she was shocked because she felt like she  _should_  be shocked. Shocked that Jong Kook wants to watch her shower. That her  _friend_  ordered her to take off her clothes. Yes, that  _should_  be shocking. She finds, though, underneath the reflexive shock, she's surprisingly fine. That thick, warm, comfortable feeling that seems to come over her lately any time Jong Kook approaches is still in place. When cloaked by it, she feels like nothing can harm her, nothing is embarassing, nothing can go wrong, because... she pauses a moment. 

Because Jong Kook has it all under control. Jong Kook has  _everything_  under control when she's here in his house, and the freedom this allows her - to relax, to not think, to let someone else take care of her without worrying about appearing needy or unable to take care of herself, all of that happens here in his house. 

As she turns these thoughts over in her mind, she washes slowly. The fearful trembling gradually fades away. Jong Kook watches her, mildly amused at how she's now oblivious to his presence, completely lost in her own thoughts. Normally, he'd stop her from trying to sort everything out on her own, but he can tell that the last pieces are slowly clicking in to place. That the Ji Hyo he unlocked is stepping out once and for all.

Ji Hyo isn't aware of that herself, of course. She slowly muddles through her thoughts, not even noticing as the more critical and analytical ones flit away for more calm, peaceful, happy feelings instead. She doesn't even notice when she stops thinking over Jong Kook's new angle all together, instead just enjoying her shower and enjoying knowing he's sitting right outside, waiting for her. 

Quite a while after she's finished actually washing, Jong Kook notices the expression on her face has changed, moving from one of tense scrutiny of her own internal monologue to something more relaxed, open, and pleasant. He stands and opens the shower door, reaching in to turn off the water, then turning to grab a towel.

"Come on out, baby girl," he tells her, holding the towel wide. She steps right into it and stands placidly still while he dries her from top to bottom, not flinching or shying away when his touch slides over her chest or between her legs.

He presses his lips to the top of her head and murmurs, "Good girl." A grin spreads over his face when she gives a full body wiggle of delight. This is going much better than he ever could have anticipated, but then, he knew he didn't have Ji Hyo pegged wrong from the start.

He leads her into the bedroom and drops the towel into the hamper. He sits her down in front of the mirror, naked, and picks up the brush. He watches with a small smile pulling at the corner of his lips as she tries so hard to keep her hands by her sides, to act like everything is normal, like it's a standard, every day occurance to have him brush her hair as she stares at her stark naked self in the mirror. Finally, she closes her eyes against the image.

"Open your eyes, baby girl," he says, and they snap back open, almost reflexively, then shut again. He waits, and slowly she pulls her eyes open.

"Look at yourself," he demands, facing her in the mirror over her head as he runs the brush through her hair. "Don't you think you're beautiful?"

She doesn't answer, but ducks her head in response.

"You are," he insists. "You're the most beautiful I've ever seen you, just like this." He slides his free hand over her shoulder and down her upper arm as he speaks. "I don't know if I've ever seen someone more beautiful than you are right now. Oh, wait." He pretends a thought is just dawning on him. "Maybe you were more beautiful - just a touch more beautiful - last night in my bed."

He catches her by the jaw as she attempts to duck her head again. He gently turns her face up so they're looking each other in the eyes. Hers are wide. They hold an unsettling mixture of fear and pleasure at his words. He aches to comfort her, to tell her he understands what she's feeling right now, and that everything is going to be just fine. That he's going to  _make_  it just fine. But he stops himself, knowing that she needs to find her way to him on her own.

"Don't hide from me," he tells her softly, not unkindly, but firmly. "Never hide from me, baby girl. Do you understand?"

She nods slowly, her eyes never leaving his. Satisfied, he releases her chin and lets her face forward again. For the entire rest of the time he brushes her hair, she keeps her eyes forward, staring in the mirror, watching. When he's done, he bends to wrap his arms around her from behind, kissing where her neck meets her shoulder. "What a brave girl," he whispers into her skin, and he feels the shiver shoot through her.

Ji Hyo has long since said goodbye to the logical part of her, beaten down and away by the new, comfortable, comforting part that's taken its place. Without logic, though, all that's left to her - aside from her fuzzy, warm, cloak of Jong Kook-induced peacefulness - is fear. Try as she might, she can't wrap her mind around what's happening. Why it's so easy to go along with everything he says when she's never been one to obliviously go with the flow. When she's always stood up for herself, made her own way, handled her own business. She feels herself, the self she knows and depends on, slipping away from her bit by bit. Every once in a while, the haze parts and she sees the separation growing, and can't stop the desperate mental scramble to hold on to something,  _anything_ , to keep him from wrapping his fist of control around her completely. She feels strangled, panicked, like she can't breathe. Then he rubs her head or kisses her neck or tells her how good she's being and how brave she is, almost like he knows exactly what's going on inside her head and the exact trigger words he needs to say to bring that haze back around her. Her mind clouds and floats away and the next time she breaks through, the separation between her now and the her she knows is even wider, and she has no idea how to stop it.

Jong Kook seems completely aware of her unsettlement. He's extraordinarily gentle with her as he helps her up from the stool to get dressed.

"Oh, we're out of shirts in this pile," he says from over by the closet. "Would you like to wear your own clothes, since you're going home later today anyway?," he asks.

"No!," she says, too loudly and too quickly. "I mean, no... isn't it the rule that I wear your shirt while I'm here? I mean... I can follow the rules for a couple of more hours," she says, trying to sound aloof. "You can just give me that one you're wearing."

"Oh, can I?," he asks, amused, stalking back across the room toward her like a tiger tracking its prey. "I suppose you're right, that  _is_  the rule," he says, crossing his arms and grabbing the hem of his shirt to pull it over his head. 

Ji Hyo holds her breath as his chest is exposed, trying desperately to restrain herself from running her finger down the path between his pecs, through his abs, down to his waistband. He flips the shirt rightside out.

"Arms up," he tells her, and she raises her hands in the air. He drops the shirt over them and over her head, pulling it down to her thighs. "And I know you know better than to ask for something to wear under here by now, right?"

"Yes," she agrees and nods, glancing away and tugging the shirt down over her butt some more.

"I'm glad we understand each other," he says jokingly, his eyes twinkling at her, then takes her hand to lead her out to the living room. He stops by the kitchen to grab her lidded cup - she has to admit to herself by now that it most  _certainly_  is a sippy cup - and takes her to the couch. He hands her her cup and she stares at it in her hand. She can feel the hazy feeling parting, sensical Ji Hyo yelling to her from the distance to snap out of it. Jong Kook sits down at one end of the couch, watching her.

"Ji Hyo, sit down," he tells her, watching her carefully, bracing himself.

She sits down on the couch beside him.

"On the cushion," he reminds her gently.

"I want to sit on the couch," she says absently, still staring at the cup in her hand.

"That's too bad," he says simply. "You need to sit where you're told now, baby girl."

"I'm going to sit on the couch!," she suddenly snaps at him, turning to look at him with her eyes snapping.

His jaw tightens and his eyes narrow. He takes her by the shoulders and forcefully moves her down to the floor as she shrieks in frustration. She immediately springs back up.

"I want to sit on the couch! And stop calling me baby girl! I'm an adult woman! Stop controlling me! Stop telling me what to do! You already got what you want! I said I want to fuck you! Let's just fuck and get this over with. That's what you want, isn't it? You said so yourself! You want to fuck me! Well, you win! Game over! Fuck me and let me go!"

Even she seems startled by the words pouring out of her mouth. She looks shocked and horrified, but can't seem to stop herself. There's a tinge of panic to her voice and sympathy surges within Jong Kook. He takes a deep breath and swallows it down, forcing his voice to be even and firm.

"I don't like when you use that language, Ji Hyo. Sit down on the cushion."

"Fuck you!," she yells. "And fuck this stupid cup!" She whips it at the wall, knocking a picture frame off the shelf. The glass shatters on the floor, ringing in the silence between them.

Here we go, Jong Kook thinks. He stands in front of her.

"Ji Hyo, I told you there are rules here."

"Fuck your rules!," she breaks in. Her eyes are wild now. Logical Ji Hyo is making her last stand, and, Jong Kook thinks pityingly, she doesn't even understand what she's standing against.

"There are rules here, and I expect you to follow them. Since you can't seem to do that right now, I'll give you some time to think and calm down until you can."

He takes her firmly by the upper arm, leading her to the wall across from the couch, between the television and the door to the kitchen. He faces her toward the wall. Her body is stiff and he has to exert more force than he'd like to in order to force her palms to the wall. He stands behind her, his chest pressed to her back as she struggles, his hands holding hers firmly in place against the wall.

He drops his head down so his mouth is near her ear. "Baby girl," he says softly, "following the rules isn't optional. I understand you're upset right now, but I told you several times that if you need something, you only have to ask me. Instead of asking me for help with whatever is bothering you, you threw a tantrum."

Ji Hyo shrieks through her teeth in frustration, trying to fling herself back against him to get free. They both know she is physically no match for him, though. He presses closer to her, crowding her toward the wall.

"You are going to stand here, baby girl, until you're calm and ready to behave." He's using the firm, flat tone that stirs a pull deep inside of her. "You can take as long as you need, but do not remove your hands from the wall. I will be here with you the whole time. I will not leave you, but you will stay right here. Do you understand?"

"And if I don't?," she demands.

"Do you want to find out?"

Ji Hyo's chest is heaving, angry breaths streaming out through her nose.

He presses his lips to her ear.

"Answer me, Ji Hyo. Now." His voice sounds thin, dangerous, crystalline and out of patience.

"I understand," she says through clenched teeth. 

He nods and steps away, moving to the couch and picking up her phone to tend to her messages.

Ji Hyo screams through her teeth again. She stomps her feet. She kicks the wall. She does everything she can to vent the confusion and frustration boiling up from the battle going on within her. She's not mad at Jong Kook. She's not mad at him at  _all_. Quite the opposite. Right now, she wants nothing more than to drop her hands, spin around, and fling herself into his lap, to beg him to help her, to comfort her, to make her understand why her head is so confused and divided over what's been happening here over the last few days. She forces herself to hold firm, though, never removing her hands from the wall. I  _will_  figure this out, she tells herself. I  _will_  understand. 

Everything feels so wrong. None of this is okay. It's not okay that she's in Jong Kook's house with a t-shirt on and nothing else. A t-shirt that smells like him, the new part of her notes, taking a deep, calming breath. Okay, that helps a little. She takes another deep breath. Calm down. Think this through.

Behind her, she can hear Jong Kook on the phone, talking softly to someone at her company. She strains to hear him. He's talking about the endorsements she - well, he - turned down. She listens to him explain how, even if the demands on her time and energy weren't entirely too much, the offers are subpar. That he expects better to be offered to her. That he will be calling again if anything of the same caliber crosses in front of her again. Her lip trembles as she listens. She yelled at him, she cursed, she stomped her feet and threw things. She broke his picture frame. She threw all his generosity back in his face. All he did was ask her to follow simple rules, and she couldn't even do that. She went against everything he said to her, defied him to his face, and yet he still sits down to handle her business for her. Handle it better than she could, handle it in a way that not only solves some current stress, but works to make her life easier down the road. She can feel her eyes filling with tears. All he is trying to do is take care of her, and all she has done this whole week is calculate, scheme, try to stay one step ahead of him, try to manipulate him to do what she wants and give her what she wants. He's offered her this cocoon, asking for nothing in return, and in one ugly fit, she tore it all to the ground.

She doesn't even notice as the tears start to fall, as her shoulders start shaking. Soon, she's sobbing quietly, her palms pressed flat to the wall the whole time. 

Jong Kook watches her from the couch. His heart is breaking, watching her struggle. Watching her realize that everything she's been fighting against, the last gasp rebellion against the control he's been exerting over her, both overtly and subtly, is exactly what's been making her so happy at the same time. He feels for her internal struggle, knows that someone as independent as Ji Hyo, someone who works so hard to do what others expect of her while still caring for herself as best she can, would never even realize what she was craving deep down, because it sounds so alien and wrong. He knows this is the last step, that he just has to play this correctly and let the chips fall where they will, but he's dying to get up and yank her away from the wall. To hold her close and tell her that all of this is over, that she doesn't have to do it all alone anymore. That she can come here and live in his house under these rules that make her feel safe and cared for, and leave it all to him. That that's what she's  _going_  to do. He longs to just take her and tell her how it will be. He knows, though, that to achieve his long term plans, she needs to make it the last few steps on her own. He clenches his jaw and tries to concentrate on working through her messages, all the while cringing internally at his inability to offer her the comfort she needs.

When Ji Hyo has calmed, when her shoulders are no longer shaking and the last hiccups have subsided, Jong Kook puts her phone away and heads down the hall to her room. As he passes her, he sees her tense, her body tight with anxiety. He hurries to her room and pulls a box from under the bed, removing her clothes and the bag his manager brought them in. He packs all but one outfit and hurries back to her, leaving the bag in the hall.

He stands behind her and places his hands on her shoulders. She remains tense under his palms. He slides his hands down her arms and gently uses them to remove hers from the wall, pulling them in and crossing her arms over her chest as he hugs her to his. He feels her sag, just slightly, in his arms, but she doesn't fully relax. He knows she won't from this point forward.

Carefully, he picks her up in his arms, cradling her, and carries her to the couch. He settles her in his lap and holds her head to his chest with his palm, tucking it under his chin. They stay that way, silently for a long time.

When quite some time has passed, Jong Kook lifts his head and sets Ji Hyo on her feet. Without speaking, he leads her down the hall to her room. She stiffens when she sees the clothes laid out on the bed.

"You go ahead and get changed," he tells her. "I'll be in the living room." He leaves and shuts the door behind him, grabbing her bag on his way back to the couch, where he sits and waits. This could go several ways. She could be back out in a flash, dressed and ready to go, for one. That seems like the most likely option. But long minutes go by, and she doesn't appear. He bounces his knee as he waits.

In her room, Ji Hyo stares at the clothes on the bed. So this is it. She fucked up so badly, he's sending her away. She clenches her fists against the tightness in her chest, doing her best to will it away. It's for the best, anyway, she tells herself. This whole thing has been messed up. Entirely messed up. She can't believe she... with  _him_. She can't believe his stupid game worked. She can't believe she fell for it. She can't believe that part of her doesn't want to go, even in the face of everything that's happened.

Okay, she tells herself. You can have thirty seconds. One, two... her lip trembles. Three, four... a tear slides down her cheek. Five... she covers her face with her hands and sobs silently into them, counting the whole while. When she hits thirty, she determinedly lifts her head and wipes her cheeks with the back of her hands. She tips her chin in the air and marches over to the bed, quickly shedding Jong Kook's t-shirt and exchanging it for her own clothes. She feels strange, fully dressed, like a different person. She feels like a different person  _pretending_  to be regular old Song Ji Hyo. She moves to the vanity to check her face in the mirror, ducking into the bathroom to splash cold water on her cheeks. Returning, she reaches for the hairbrush to put her mussed hair back into sleek order, but can't bring herself to pick it up. Her chest tightens again, and she speaks to herself firmly. You had your time to break down. Now it's time to be strong again. 

She takes a deep breath and marches back out to the living room, heels clicking on the floor as she goes.

* * *

 Sunday morning, Ji Hyo awakens in her own apartment with a terrible headache. She'd spent all of Saturday in a daze, at war with herself. Friday night, when she'd come back into the living room, Jong Kook had been sitting on the couch with a bag at his feet. He stood as she entered. 

"So," she'd said.

"So," he'd said, smiling at her. She forced a smile in return.

"This was... interesting," she said.

"Indeed," he agreed. He picked up the bag and brought it to her. "You made it through the five days," he told her. 

"And you won," she replied, somewhat bitingly.

He tilts his head in acknowledgement. "In a way," he says. 

"What does that mean?" Annoyance had crept into her voice.

"It means, 'in a way,'" he said infuritatingly. 

"So now that it's over," she said, and took her bag from his hand, "can you tell me what you were trying to show me?"

He shook his head and smiled. "If I successfully showed you, you'd see it yourself." He shrugged ruefully. 

A few moments later, with one more parting word from Jong Kook ("Remember everything I told you, Ji Hyo"), she was gone.

She's thought over and over about that moment since the second she left and headed right for a liquor store. She spent Friday night half-drunk, thinking about it. She spent all of Saturday wandering her apartment, thinking about it. He'd looked...  _sad_ , almost. For a second. Not like someone who had just won a challenge. More like someone who thought he'd failed.

For most of Saturday, she couldn't wrap her mind around this. She actually spent most of the day sitting across the room from her phone, wincing every time it rang, and waiting until it stopped to tiptoe over and check who called. Her company. Always. More requests. More demands. Asking to speak to her, who would listen to  _reason_ , instead of Jong Kook.

She'd eaten and slept very little since she'd come back. Sitting at her table felt unnatural, strange. She felt out of place and clumsy, cursing Jong Kook's strange furniture for throwing her all out of whack. She'd tried carrying her food to a cushion on the floor at the coffee table. She was able to eat happily, then, but only for a moment. Only until she realized she was just doing her best to replicate Jong Kook's apartment. 

Very little got accomplished Saturday. She just rattled around her house and tried to fight away the ache of something missing.

Now it's Sunday, though, and she wakes with a clear head. The last of the comfortable haze Jong Kook's presence settled over her has burned away, and she determinedly tackles this problem.

 _What_  was he trying to show her, she thinks? What went on in those few days that was supposed to be a demonstration for her? Why did he look like he failed on the last day? Why did he seem to want her and then let her go?

She thinks over everything carefully. The rules, the furniture, the control. Her stomach warms and a tinge of the haze creeps in as she remembers the way Jong Kook made her feel. Looking back now, it feels like it  _should_  seem wrong, that she gave up control of her work, even her own bodily autonomy to him for five days, but it doesn't. It doesn't seem wrong at all, not to her. Yes, she rationally understands that other people might be horrified, but she can't deny how she felt through those five days. Comfortable. At peace. Cared for. Like a treasured, precious thing.

One of the final pieces snaps into place and she gasps aloud. He was showing her what she  _needs_. He was showing her the path to her own comfort and happiness. Not a path she would ever have sought on her own, not ever. No, the Ace would  _never_  seek out an opportunity to give herself up to someone else, not ever, except for those occasional nighttime encounters with rough men she'd never see again. Her eyes widen as it all sinks in. He  _saw_  her. He knew her inside and out and he was showing her that what she thought she wanted wasn't what she really wanted at all.

But then... what about that last day? He was still kind, but not nearly the same gentle man she'd come to know over the years. No, he had an edge. He pushed her comfort zone, ever so slightly. He invaded her space. He bent her to his will. Hell, he  _punished_  her. How does  _that_  fit in with showing Ji Hyo that she needs to give up control to someone in order to find her real self?

The last piece falls into the puzzle with a thud. That last day. He was showing her what  _he_  needs. Ji Hyo's heart starts to race as she puts it all together. He took four days to carefully, slowly, gently show her the way to herself, a self she didn't even know existed. Then he took one day - one small part of one day - to show her who  _he_  is. Not nearly enough time for her to understand what was happening. He could have told her from the start, he could have swallowed her up into his control right from the beginning, but he didn't. Instead, he took the time to ease her in. To show her who she was so she could move forward in life on the right path for her. And then just one tiny, tiny sliver of time for himself. Just a fraction of the whole week to display his  _own_  true self to her, in hopes that she'd find what she was looking for right there.

Her mind scrambles back to those last few moments, the one she'd played over and over in her mind, how sad he'd looked for a split second, what he'd said to her, and stands so quickly, she knocks her glass of water all over the floor.

"Well, shit."

* * *

By Sunday afternoon, Jong Kook is going crazy. The plan that had seemed so solid for all the time he'd spent crafting it now seems so stupid. He's at war with himself. He flops back and forth between being pleased with himself - he's certain Ji Hyo left with new knowledge of herself - and kicking himself. He should have inserted himself into her thoughts more. He should have just made himself clear. Hell, he should have thrown her to the bed and just fucked her into the mattress until she got the message. But no. Instead, he guided her carefully through the first few days, leaving no time for himself, no time to show her what _he_  was all about. She's the Ace, though, he tells himself. She saw him. She may not have realized it right then, but she'll put it all together in the end... right? 

He's in agony as he waits.

And if she  _hadn't_  seen it? Then what? Then she'd have go on, equipped with this knowledge he gave her, to find some other man to fill the needs  _he_  showed her she had. He took that one tiny bit of time and then let her go, gambling that she'd put it together. That she'd want him. He flings a pillow at the wall in a rage at the idea, knocking down the twin photo frame to the one Ji Hyo had destroyed days before.

Cursing, he stands to get the broom and dustpan and hears a knock at the door. His heart is in his throat as he walks over and puts his hand on the knob. It's probably just going to be my manager, he tells himself. He steels himself and pulls open the door.

Ji Hyo lifts her chin and looks him directly in the eye. She knots her fingers together and Jong Kook can see her hands are trembling. His heart clenches. 

Before he can reach out for her, she speaks.

"Jong Kook," she says clearly, though her voice wobbles. "I remember what you told me."

He forces himself to be still, looking down at her.

"I remember," she repeats. "Please." Her voice starts to tremble in earnest now, and her eyes begin to shine with tears. "I want...," she swallows hard and pauses.

He holds his breath, still not daring to let himself hope.

"I want to come back." One tear slips free, but she swallows and says more firmly, "I want to come back. To you. Please let me come back to you." She holds her chin up and refuses to look away, even as fear starts to creep into her eyes and tears flow freely and silently.

He releases his breath, finally, and sucks in air like he's suffocating. He reaches out to grab Ji Hyo by the shoulders, pulling her roughly to his chest and squeezing too hard.

"Oh, thank god," he whispers into her hair. "I thought you wouldn't come back."

She's shaking now, half-relieved, half-starting to realized what she's done. "I can't -- I can't--" She struggles to get words out, her fists clenched against his chest.

"Don't worry," he whispers into her hair. "Don't worry. My baby girl will never -  _ever_  - be without her daddy again."


End file.
